Job training in decline
The percentage of businesses offering on-the-job training has declined significantly since last year amid tough economic times, according to a survey released by 1111 Job Bank yesterday.
The survey, conducted by the online employment services provider during the second half of this month, revealed that only 61.3 percent of businesses offer on-the-job training, down from 85.7 percent in a similar survey last year.
Among the businesses taking part in the survey, 66.1 percent said they were in favor of providing assistance to employees in the form of on-the-job training, down slightly from 70.5 percent last year, while 28.9 percent said they had no opinion as they considered skills training to be a personal responsibility.
Only 4.9 percent of respondents said they did not support provision of training, with the main reasons for this including concern over workload, wasting company resources and the inability to offer overtime.
The survey took place online between Oct. 15 and Oct. 28. A total of 525 valid samples were collected.
Savings guarantee until 2010
The Financial Supervisory Commission announced late on Tuesday that a blanket guarantee for the nation’s bank savings announced earlier this month will be in force until the end of next year.
Guaranteed deposits include current and time deposits, foreign currency-denominated deposits, inter-bank lending and negotiable certificates of deposit (NCDs) issued by the central bank.
But the commission said that the government would impose insurance fees on inter-bank lending, to be added to a guarantee fund in the event of bank failures. As supporting measures to the blanket guarantee, the commission said it would reinforce supervision of the domestic banking sector to improve financial transparency.
Banks would be required to disclose assets, liabilities and details of corporate governance, the commission said.
New buyback for Wan Hai
Wan Hai Lines Ltd (萬海航運), a local container shipping firm, said yesterday that its board approved a plan to buy back as many as 65.47 million shares on the open market to protect shareholders’ interests.
The firm said in a stock exchange filing that it planned to buy the shares for between NT$8.50 and NT$20.60 each from today until Dec. 29.
This will be Wan Hai’s second buyback. The company’s first buyback took place between Sept. 30 and Thursday last week.
China cuts rates again
China cut key interest rates for the third time in six weeks yesterday in a bid to spur economic growth amid fears of a global recession that would hit its vital exports.
China trimmed the rate on a one-year loan by 0.27 percentage points to 6.66 percent, adding to official efforts to revive slowing economic growth and help struggling exporters.
The country’s central bank also said in a statement that it had lowered the rate on one-year fixed deposits to 3.60 percent from 3.87 percent. Both cuts are effective from today.
The cuts come as the US Federal Reserve and European central banks scramble to cut rates to shore up investor confidence. China already cut rates on Oct. 8 and Sept. 15.
NT dollar makes gains
The New Taiwan dollar gained ground against the US dollar on the Taipei Foreign Exchange yesterday, rising NT$0.143 to close at NT$33.295.
A total of US$1.535 billion changed hands during the day’s trading.
RSS