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?”
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus yesterday said it opposes the introduction of migrant workers from India until a mechanism is in place to prevent workers from absconding. Minister of Labor Hung Sun-han (洪申翰) on Thursday told the Legislative Yuan that the first group of migrant workers from India could be introduced as early as this year, as part of a government program. The caucus’ opposition to the policy is based on the assessment that “the risk is too high,” KMT caucus secretary-general Lin Pei-hsiang (林沛祥) said. Taiwan has a serious and long-standing problem of migrant workers absconding from their contracts, indicating that
SPACE VETERAN: Kjell N. Lindgren, who helps lead NASA’s human spaceflight missions, has been on two expeditions on the ISS and has spent 311 days in space Taiwan-born US astronaut Kjell N. Lindgren is to visit Taiwan to promote technological partnerships through one of the programs organized by the US for its 250th national anniversary. Lindgren would be in Taiwan from Tuesday to Saturday next week as part of the US Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs’ US Speaker Program, organized to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) said in a statement yesterday. Lindgren plans to engage with key leaders across the nation “to advance cutting-edge technological partnerships and inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers,”
RSS