Clarity and consistency are essential to the government's restructuring plan, especially in making organizational changes to the nation's financial authorities, the head of the European Chamber of Commerce Taipei (ECCT) said yesterday.
The foreign business sector hopes the government will quickly clarify who is responsible for what, Guy Wittich, chief executive officer of the ECCT, said in a phone interview.
"We also hope the government will implement the restructuring in a consistent way," Wittich said, referring to a government draft bill that would return financial policymaking rights to the Ministry of Finance from the newly-established Financial Supervisory Commission.
"If everybody is doing a bit of something, that's like nobody is doing anything," he said.
The Cabinet approved a draft bill that would return financial policymaking rights to the Ministry of Finance, aiming to streamline governmental organization over the next two years. Under the proposed bill, changes in the commission's financial policymaking rights involving the banking, securities and futures and insurance sectors would take effect after a two-year grace period.
"The decision was made based on the principle of political accountability," Yeh Jiunn-rong (
Yeh said the principle of political accountability is compromised by the fact that the commission -- an independent agency enjoying guaranteed tenures -- takes charge of policy formulation without shouldering political responsibility.
Under the current political system, the Executive Yuan is held responsible for any financial policy made by the Financial Supervisory Commission.
Yeh said that taking away the policymaking mechanism from the commission was problematic, and that this issue was still under cross-ministry discussion.
"A clear plan will come out by the end of this year, since the issue has raised a lot of concern," Yeh said.
He stressed that the plan would be formulated based on the principles of not interfering in financial supervisory functions as well as the unification of the nation's financial service policy.
Despite criticism from academics that the government's policy flip-flop could lead to inconsistency between financial policies and supervision in the future, as well as causing problems with personnel allocation, Minister of Finance Lin Chuan (
He said at the time that it was also necessary to shift some of the manpower of the Monetary Affairs Bureau, Insurance Bureau and Securities and Futures Bureau back to the ministry from the commission after it takes over policymaking power.
Anna Bhobho, a 31-year-old housewife from rural Zimbabwe, was once a silent observer in her home, excluded from financial and family decisionmaking in the deeply patriarchal society. Today, she is a driver of change in her village, thanks to an electric tricycle she owns. In many parts of rural sub-Saharan Africa, women have long been excluded from mainstream economic activities such as operating public transportation. However, three-wheelers powered by green energy are reversing that trend, offering financial opportunities and a newfound sense of importance. “My husband now looks up to me to take care of a large chunk of expenses,
SECTOR LEADER: TSMC can increase capacity by as much as 20 percent or more in the advanced node part of the foundry market by 2030, an analyst said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is expected to lead its peers in the advanced 2-nanometer process technology, despite competition from Samsung Electronics Co and Intel Corp, TrendForce Corp analyst Joanne Chiao (喬安) said. TSMC’s sophisticated products and its large production scale are expected to allow the company to continue dominating the global 2-nanometer process market this year, Chiao said. The world’s largest contract chipmaker is scheduled to begin mass production of chips made on the 2-nanometer process in its Hsinchu fab in the second half of this year. It would also hold a ceremony on Monday next week to
TECH CLUSTER: The US company’s new office is in the Shalun Smart Green Energy Science City, a new AI industry base and cybersecurity hub in southern Taiwan US chip designer Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) yesterday launched an office in Tainan’s Gueiren District (歸仁), marking a significant milestone in the development of southern Taiwan’s artificial intelligence (AI) industry, the Tainan City Government said in a statement. AMD Taiwan general manager Vincent Chern (陳民皓) presided over the opening ceremony for the company’s new office at the Shalun Smart Green Energy Science City (沙崙智慧綠能科學城), a new AI industry base and cybersecurity hub in southern Taiwan. Facilities in the new office include an information processing center, and a research and development (R&D) center, the Tainan Economic Development Bureau said. The Ministry
State-run CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) yesterday signed a letter of intent with Alaska Gasline Development Corp (AGDC), expressing an interest to buy liquefied natural gas (LNG) and invest in the latter’s Alaska LNG project, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said in a statement. Under the agreement, CPC is to participate in the project’s upstream gas investment to secure stable energy resources for Taiwan, the ministry said. The Alaska LNG project is jointly promoted by AGDC and major developer Glenfarne Group LLC, as Alaska plans to export up to 20 million tonnes of LNG annually from 2031. It involves constructing an 1,290km
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