The Council of Economic Planning and Development (
The CEPD's preliminary report said raising the debt level would create domestic demand and stimulate economic development.
There are two ways to finance the debt, through either domestic or foreign borrowing. Chen Po-chih (
"First of all, it is clear that, with the already stringent finance, the government needs to raise money to cope with earthquake losses," he said, "and banks buying government bonds has certain merits."
"Banks, by buying government assets, are increasing their assets," Chen said. "If banks lend money to the government, the issue of problematic loans in the financial market can also be alleviated."
In other words, with less money in their coffers, the banks would be more careful in giving out loans.
When asked whether raising debt would promote economic development, Chen stressed that "it is very important to have appropriate ways of spending," indicating the effect of raising debt depends on how the government uses it.
"First of all," he said, "there has to be a reasonable standard for giving money to people who were hurt in the earthquake."
People should get support appropriate to their needs, he added, instead of using one standard across the board.
As an example Chen suggested: "If a house worth NT$3 million in Taichung was destroyed, and the government gave the owners NT$1 million in compensation, that doesn't mean that the government has to give NT$10 million to the owner of of a NT$30 million building that collapsed in Taipei."
This is because the latter, who is richer, has the ability to recover with less government compensation, so the government can concentrate on allocating its resources to the areas that need help the most.
Moreover, Chen said, because money is needed everywhere after the earthquake, it is easy to squander the funds. "Reconstruction is different from providing aid," he said.
"We have to be more cautious and not let politicians allocate resources based on their own personal agenda," he said, "evaluation has to be done, before spending the money raised."
As an example, Chen mentioned rebuilding bridges: "Whether the destroyed bridge needs to be rebuilt at its original location, or moved to another location, spending the same amount of money can create different effects."
COMPETITION: AMD, Intel and Qualcomm are unveiling new laptop and desktop parts in Las Vegas, arguing their technologies provide the best performance for AI workloads Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD), the second-biggest maker of computer processors, said its chips are to be used by Dell Technologies Inc for the first time in PCs sold to businesses. The chipmaker unveiled new processors it says would make AMD-based PCs the best at running artificial intelligence (AI) software. Dell has decided to use the chips in some of its computers aimed at business customers, AMD executives said at CES in Las Vegas on Monday. Dell’s embrace of AMD for corporate PCs — it already uses the chipmaker for consumer devices — is another blow for Intel Corp as the company
ADVANCED: Previously, Taiwanese chip companies were restricted from building overseas fabs with technology less than two generations behind domestic factories Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), a major chip supplier to Nvidia Corp, would no longer be restricted from investing in next-generation 2-nanometer chip production in the US, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. However, the ministry added that the world’s biggest contract chipmaker would not be making any reckless decisions, given the weight of its up to US$30 billion investment. To safeguard Taiwan’s chip technology advantages, the government has barred local chipmakers from making chips using more advanced technologies at their overseas factories, in China particularly. Chipmakers were previously only allowed to produce chips using less advanced technologies, specifically
MediaTek Inc (聯發科) yesterday said it is teaming up with Nvidia Corp to develop a new chip for artificial intelligence (AI) supercomputers that uses architecture licensed from Arm Holdings PLC. The new product is targeting AI researchers, data scientists and students rather than the mass PC market, the company said. The announcement comes as MediaTek makes efforts to add AI capabilities to its Dimensity chips for smartphones and tablets, Genio family for the Internet of Things devices, Pentonic series of smart TVs, Kompanio line of Arm-based Chromebooks, along with the Dimensity auto platform for vehicles. MeidaTek, the world’s largest chip designer for smartphones
BRAVE NEW WORLD: Nvidia believes that AI would fuel a new industrial revolution and would ‘do whatever we can’ to guide US AI policy, CEO Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp cofounder and chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) on Tuesday said he is ready to meet US president-elect Donald Trump and offer his help to the incoming administration. “I’d be delighted to go see him and congratulate him, and do whatever we can to make this administration succeed,” Huang said in an interview with Bloomberg Television, adding that he has not been invited to visit Trump’s home base at Mar-a-Lago in Florida yet. As head of the world’s most valuable chipmaker, Huang has an opportunity to help steer the administration’s artificial intelligence (AI) policy at a moment of rapid change.
RSS