The Council of Economic Planning and Development (
The special law is aimed at providing a legal basis for reconstruction operations, because an emergency decree, as was recently implemented by the president, is short-term, but reconstruction work is long-term. Taiwan's emergency decree will only be in effect for six months, expiring on March 24, next year.
"It is estimated that three to five years will be required to rebuild the infrastructure [in areas hit by the earthquake], and the parties involved would need a legal basis for their activities," said CEPD Secretary General Thomas Yeh (
He stressed that the six-month emergency decree overpowers general laws, making it possible to carry out relief operations and aid, but later on the planned reconstruction work would still be governed by existing laws, such as those governing urban renewal.
He also said that the special law would support the CEPD's suggestion of establishing a collective fund. The CEPD suggested that the government, the banks, the public, and the construction industry be party to the fund.
He added that the proposed reconstruction fund would not conflict with the Ministry of Finance's request that banks take over housing loans and debts win earthquake areas. "The MOF's suggestion is for immediate relief, while the purpose of the CEPD's suggested fund is for long-term reconstruction," Yeh said.
Yeh said that in terms of the fund's structure, "the existing regulations on stock and trust funds restrict transactions to a cash only basis, while special laws can provide a legal basis for other mediums for transaction." The CEPD's suggested fund would allow the public to use land as a medium of transaction in an effort to make reconstruction efforts more convenient and expedient.
The CEPD yesterday reached a consensus on the principles of the reconstruction plan, such as the timetable and the agencies to be involved. They will now discuss the proposal with the relevant government ministries, and the details are expected to be announced late tomorrow.
The CEPD's Vice Chairman Schive Chi (
Japanese technology giant Softbank Group Corp said Tuesday it has sold its stake in Nvidia Corp, raising US$5.8 billion to pour into other investments. It also reported its profit nearly tripled in the first half of this fiscal year from a year earlier. Tokyo-based Softbank said it sold the stake in Silicon Vally-based Nvidia last month, a move that reflects its shift in focus to OpenAI, owner of the artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot ChatGPT. Softbank reported its profit in the April-to-September period soared to about 2.5 trillion yen (about US$13 billion). Its sales for the six month period rose 7.7 percent year-on-year
CRESTING WAVE: Companies are still buying in, but the shivers in the market could be the first signs that the AI wave has peaked and the collapse is upon the world Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday reported a new monthly record of NT$367.47 billion (US$11.85 billion) in consolidated sales for last month thanks to global demand for artificial intelligence (AI) applications. Last month’s figure represented 16.9 percent annual growth, the slowest pace since February last year. On a monthly basis, sales rose 11 percent. Cumulative sales in the first 10 months of the year grew 33.8 percent year-on-year to NT$3.13 trillion, a record for the same period in the company’s history. However, the slowing growth in monthly sales last month highlights uncertainty over the sustainability of the AI boom even as
AI BOOST: Next year, the cloud and networking product business is expected to remain a key revenue pillar for the company, Hon Hai chairman Young Liu said Manufacturing giant Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday posted its best third-quarter profit in the company’s history, backed by strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI) servers. Net profit expanded 17 percent annually to NT$57.67 billion (US$1.86 billion) from NT$44.36 billion, the company said. On a quarterly basis, net profit soared 30 percent from NT$44.36 billion, it said. Hon Hai, which is Apple Inc’s primary iPhone assembler and makes servers powered by Nvidia Corp’s AI accelerators, said earnings per share expanded to NT$4.15 from NT$3.55 a year earlier and NT$3.19 in the second quarter. Gross margin improved to 6.35 percent,
BUST FEARS: While a KMT legislator asked if an AI bubble could affect Taiwan, the DGBAS minister said the sector appears on track to continue growing The local property market has cooled down moderately following a series of credit control measures designed to contain speculation, the central bank said yesterday, while remaining tight-lipped about potential rule relaxations. Lawmakers in a meeting of the legislature’s Finance Committee voiced concerns to central bank officials that the credit control measures have adversely affected the government’s tax income and small and medium-sized property developers, with limited positive effects. Housing prices have been climbing since 2016, even when the central bank imposed its first set of control measures in 2020, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lo Ting-wei (羅廷瑋) said. “Since the second half of
RSS