The government is in the "last stage of deliberation" to allow the exchange of the New Taiwan dollar and the Chinese yuan in Taiwan proper, after the establishment of a bilateral currency clearance mechanism, an industry representative said yesterday, citing Premier Frank Hsieh (
The Chinese yuan exchange was launched in Kinmen and Matsu on Oct. 3 in a range of NT$4.039 to NT$4.199 to 1 yuan.
But Theodore Huang (黃茂雄), chairman of the Chinese National Association of Industry and Commerce (工商協進會), said that considering the huge amount of cross-strait business, the service should be available nationwide.
Huang made the remark after a breakfast meeting with Hsieh and several high-ranking government officials yesterday.
Support 'In Principle'
Huang said Hseih supported the idea in principle and the Cabinet is mulling the idea of setting up a "currency clearance mechanism" instead of inking a "currency clearance agreement" with Beijing.
Hsieh did not set a timetable for the issue, Huang said.
York Liao (廖耀宗), director- general of the overall planning department of the Council for Economic Planning and Development, said that under Article 38 of the Act Governing Relations Between Peoples of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (兩岸關係條例), the term "agreement" applies to nation-to-nation relations.
Wordplay
By replacing the word with "mechanism," the dispute could be settled, Liao said, citing Hsieh.
Since the conversion service began, approximately 1 million yuan (US$22,912) a day has been exchanged, Liao said.
How to help Taiwanese banks tap the Chinese market and how to help China-bound Taiwanese businesspeople obtain loans were other issues addressed by the association at yesterday's meeting.
At present, Taiwanese banks can only set up representative offices in China; they cannot engage in lending.
While the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) has proposed allowing the banks to acquire a controlling stake in smaller Chinese banks and provide loans to Taiwanese companies in China, the proposal is still under research, Huang said, again citing Hsieh.
More bourses
Huang also urged the government to speed up the establishment of a US dollar-denominated offshore bourse, unless it wants to see more local companies list on foreign stock markets.
According to the FSC's preliminary plan, a bourse will be opened for gold futures trading beginning next year. A bourse for bond futures will open after the Lunar New Year holiday, and one for company stocks will open after the second quarter of next year.
Eleven Taiwanese companies listed on Hong Kong's market last year because the territory has lower taxes and no limits on investing in China, and 44 more listed this year, Huang said.
To make Taiwan's bourse more attractive, Huang suggested opening it both to Taiwanese-run companies in China and to Chinese companies, as well as loosening restrictions on investment in China.
Currently, listed companies in Taiwan are not allowed to invest more than 40 percent of their net value in China.
To many, Tatu City on the outskirts of Nairobi looks like a success. The first city entirely built by a private company to be operational in east Africa, with about 25,000 people living and working there, it accounts for about two-thirds of all foreign investment in Kenya. Its low-tax status has attracted more than 100 businesses including Heineken, coffee brand Dormans, and the biggest call-center and cold-chain transport firms in the region. However, to some local politicians, Tatu City has looked more like a target for extortion. A parade of governors have demanded land worth millions of dollars in exchange
An Indonesian animated movie is smashing regional box office records and could be set for wider success as it prepares to open beyond the Southeast Asian archipelago’s silver screens. Jumbo — a film based on the adventures of main character, Don, a large orphaned Indonesian boy facing bullying at school — last month became the highest-grossing Southeast Asian animated film, raking in more than US$8 million. Released at the end of March to coincide with the Eid holidays after the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan, the movie has hit 8 million ticket sales, the third-highest in Indonesian cinema history, Film
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) revenue jumped 48 percent last month, underscoring how electronics firms scrambled to acquire essential components before global tariffs took effect. The main chipmaker for Apple Inc and Nvidia Corp reported monthly sales of NT$349.6 billion (US$11.6 billion). That compares with the average analysts’ estimate for a 38 percent rise in second-quarter revenue. US President Donald Trump’s trade war is prompting economists to retool GDP forecasts worldwide, casting doubt over the outlook for everything from iPhone demand to computing and datacenter construction. However, TSMC — a barometer for global tech spending given its central role in the
Alchip Technologies Ltd (世芯), an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) designer specializing in server chips, expects revenue to decline this year due to sagging demand for 5-nanometer artificial intelligence (AI) chips from a North America-based major customer, a company executive said yesterday. That would be the first contraction in revenue for Alchip as it has been enjoying strong revenue growth over the past few years, benefiting from cloud-service providers’ moves to reduce dependence on Nvidia Corp’s expensive AI chips by building their own AI accelerator by outsourcing chip design. The 5-nanometer chip was supposed to be a new growth engine as the lifecycle
RSS