The Ministry of Finance (MOF) yesterday flatly rejected a legislative report which ruled that the government's taking over of 36 credit units from grassroots financial institutions was "unconstitutional."
"Standing on the existing legal footing, the ministry has followed all due process to bail out debt-ridden community-level financial institutions," Huang Tien-mu (黃天牧), deputy director-general of the ministry's Bureau of Monetary Affairs, told a press conference yesterday.
Huang called the legislature's report "groundless and biased."
In August, 2001, the ministry instructed the Central Deposit Insurance Corp (
While the takeover of these grassroots financial institutions was part of the government's move to clean up the nation's financial sector, opposition parties has since then asked the government to return 36 grassroots credit units to farmers and fishermen's associations. They also considered petitioning the Council of Grand Justices to rule on the legality of the resolutions.
On Monday, the 21-member legislative committee, chaired by KMT Legislator Liu Cheng-hung (
"The government's coercive move had seriously infringed people's property rights," the report said, citing the 10th article of the Constitution.
The report also said that the government had auctioned off the cooperatives' assets at a very low price.
In response, Huang yesterday said that the auction was based on a professional appraisal conducted by five local accounting firms, insisting that the legislature's appraisal was only based on partial assets with good quality.
Huang also said that, before the takeover, the government had given a grace period for cooperative officials to improve their deteriorating financial conditions, but most of the management teams said they were incapable of turning performance around.
Huang said that the legislature had wrongly cited the constitutional article, which has been considered outdated after revisions to the Merger Law and the Bank Law were made.
When asked if cooperatives would be allowed to buy back their auctioned assets, Huang said that the decision rests with the Council of Agriculture, which is now the financial regulator for credit units of fishermen's and farmers' associations.
After the ministry's denial yesterday, the legislature will be entitled to seek a final ruling from the Council of Grand Justices to resolve the dispute.
TECH TITANS: Amazon’s latest chip joins Google in competing for the 90 percent market share held by Nvidia, which claims it is ‘a generation ahead of the industry’ Amazon Web Services (AWS) on Tuesday launched its in-house-built Trainium3 artificial intelligence (AI) chip, marking a significant push to compete with Nvidia Corp in the lucrative market for AI computing power. The move intensifies competition in the AI chip market, where Nvidia dominates with an estimated 80 to 90 percent market share for products used in training large language models that power the likes of ChatGPT. Google last week caused tremors in the industry when it was reported that Facebook-parent Meta Platforms Inc would employ Google AI chips in data centers, signaling new competition for Nvidia. This followed the release last month of
INSULATED: The company said it is less exposed to global complications, as it has built a strong footprint worldwide, and has multiple sources of rare earths and raw minerals Merck Group yesterday said it would ramp up production next year at its new flagship facility in Kaohsiung’s Lujhu District (路竹) to satisfy growing demand for advanced semiconductor materials and specialty gases, and to address supply resilience issues amid mounting geopolitical risks. Merck made the remarks during a news conference before the inauguration of its 500 million euros (US$582.1 million) facility, which is also to supply other markets in the Asia-Pacific region, it said. Merck executive board deputy chair and electronics CEO Kai Beckmann told reporters the company adopted a “local-for-local” strategy about seven years ago to address the cycle time of
Two companies wholly owned by the daughter of the founder of Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) on Monday reported to the Taiwan Stock Exchange that they would dispose of all of the Hon Hai shares they hold. In filings with the exchange, Hong Wei Investment Co (鋐維) said it would sell the 2.771 million Hon Hai shares it holds and Frontier Investment Corp (承鋒投資) said it would sell its 2.409 million Hon Hai shares from tomorrow until Jan. 3 next year. The two companies are wholly owned and chaired by Shirley Gou (郭曉玲), the eldest daughter of Hon Hai founder Terry
RIDING THE WAVE: The race to build AI infrastructure has lifted the valuations of top memory makers, such as Micron, amid dwindling inventories and supply challenges Micron Technology Inc is to spend ￥1.5 trillion (US$9.6 billion) to build a plant in western Japan to make memory chips for artificial intelligence (AI) applications, the Nikkei reported on Saturday. The move comes as Micron seeks to diversify advanced chip production outside of Taiwan, the Nikkei article said, citing people familiar with the matter. The new factory will manufacture high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips, a key component for working with AI processors such as those made by Nvidia Corp, the report said. Micron would build the facility within the compound of its Hiroshima plant, starting in May next year, with plans to launch
RSS