The National Communications Commission (NCC) is to try to rule on Morgan Stanley Private Equity Asia IV’s (MSPE) bid to acquire multiple system operator China Network Systems (CNS) by the end of this year, commission Chairwoman Nicole Chan (詹婷怡) said yesterday, adding that the buyer has been asked to offer more information about its relationship with Far EasTone Telecommunications Co Ltd (FET).
The legislature’s Transportation Committee questioned Chan for the first time since she took the post on Aug. 1.
The Investment Commission this month suspended a review of MSPE’s planned acquisition of CNS until the NCC re-examines the case, with discussion of the case again dominating a committee question-and-answer session.
FET has been accused of breaching regulations against direct or indirect government investment.
The company says it has followed the law and has only subscribed to corporate bonds issued by a subsidiary of MSPE.
MSPE’s acquisition bid was approved by the Fair Trade Commission and the NCC, leaving Investment Commission approval as the final step to complete the deal.
The Investment Commission sent the case back to the NCC on Wednesday last week, saying that stakeholders involved in the transaction might be in breach of the regulations banning investment by the government, political parties or the military.
Chan dismissed accusations that the NCC had refused to review the case.
She said that the NCC was not “re-examining” the case.
“The commission already approved the transaction before I took office,” Chan said. “Based on the Administrative Procedure Act (行政程序法), the commission can only withdraw ex officio or revoke an administrative deposition.”
Chan said that the NCC would need a powerful explanation to justify withdrawing or revoking a ruling it had already issued.
She told Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Lin Chun-hsien (林俊憲) and New Power Party Legislator Hsu Yung-ming (徐永明) that the current NCC commissioners had reviewed documents seen by previous commissioners before they delivered the ruling and it was found that MSPE did not enclose the appendices of its contract with FET, which would reveal details of the partnership.
The NCC could better determine whether the buyer has breached the regulations after seeing the contract and the appendices, she said.
Lin asked whether the previous commissioners had issued a flawed ruling, as it was made without all the information.
Chan did not comment on the decisions of her predecessors, but said that the NCC would focus on investigating whether FET controls operations at CNS.
The NCC could arrange another administrative hearing of the case if necessary, she said.
Independent Legislator Chao Cheng-yu (趙正宇) and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Chen Hsuen-sheng (陳雪生) said that the NCC needs to show consistency in the enforcement of government policy.
Chao said that the NCC must not give people the impression that the government intends to make enemies with large corporations and it must follow the Administrative Procedure Act in terms of the time taken to review the case.
Chen said that the previous NCC commissioners had spent more than six months and two hearings to review the case before they issued a ruling and asked whether another review would mean that the decision they made was illegal.
Chen said that the government has shown inconsistency in the enforcement of the law, citing controversy over ride-hailing service Uber as an example.
“The Ministry of Transportation and Communications said that Uber services are illegal,” Chen said. “The Investment Commission even said that Uber should leave Taiwan after repeated breaches, but why did the whole thing change when the Cabinet became involved?”
A year-long renovation of Taipei’s Bangka Park (艋舺公園) began yesterday, as city workers fenced off the site and cleared out belongings left by homeless residents who had been living there. Despite protests from displaced residents, a city official defended the government’s relocation efforts, saying transitional housing has been offered. The renovation of the park in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), near Longshan Temple (龍山寺), began at 9am yesterday, as about 20 homeless people packed their belongings and left after being asked to move by city personnel. Among them was a 90-year-old woman surnamed Wang (王), who last week said that she had no plans
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
‘SPEY’ REACTION: Beijing said its Eastern Theater Command ‘organized troops to monitor and guard the entire process’ of a Taiwan Strait transit China sent 74 warplanes toward Taiwan between late Thursday and early yesterday, 61 of which crossed the median line in the Taiwan Strait. It was not clear why so many planes were scrambled, said the Ministry of National Defense, which tabulated the flights. The aircraft were sent in two separate tranches, the ministry said. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday “confirmed and welcomed” a transit by the British Royal Navy’s HMS Spey, a River-class offshore patrol vessel, through the Taiwan Strait a day earlier. The ship’s transit “once again [reaffirmed the Strait’s] status as international waters,” the foreign ministry said. “Such transits by