As the COVID-19 pandemic drastically affects human health as well as the economy, Citigroup Inc is investing more than US$65 million in medical equipment to support frontline workers, while Citibank Taiwan Ltd (台灣花旗) is helping local families and healthcare workers.
Citigroup is passing the baton to Citibank Taiwan, which is matching dollar-for-dollar donations from its 4,000 employees nationwide, to help vulnerable families, orphans, single-parent homes and medical personnel nationwide.
Throughout the pandemic, Citibank Taiwan’s policy has been to provide its employees with a safe work environment, while continuing to provide the same level of service to its customers, Citibank Taiwan chairman Paulus Mok (莫兆鴻) said.
Photo courtesy of Citibank Taiwan Ltd
Although COVID-19 is winding down in Taiwan, many families in the nation have been hit with a drastic reduction in their income due to the pandemic’s economic effects. Affording tuition and even basic daily necessities has become a challenge for many families.
To help these families, as well as doctors on the front line, Citibank Taiwan has teamed up with nonprofit organizations the Mustard Seed Mission, the Taipei Orphan Welfare Foundation and Doctors Without Borders.
More than 35 percent of the nation’s vulnerable families are facing reduced salary, unpaid leave or even unemployment as a result of the pandemic, the Mustard Seed Mission said.
The mission thanked Citibank for its efforts to raise funds and rally 170 food banks to provide families with daily necessities including rice, noodles, canned goods, cooking oil and soap.
Working with the Taipei Orphan Welfare Foundation, Citibank aims to raise funds to help children in single-parent homes pay for tuition, as their ability to do so might have been limited by the pandemic, the bank said.
As the pandemic has not yet slowed in much of the world, Citibank also hopes that working with Doctors Without Borders could help doctors slow the spread of the disease.
Citibank employees nationwide have donated funds to subsidize the purchase of medical equipment for doctors in vulnerable areas.
The bank would continue its fundraising efforts to help disadvantaged families in Taiwan and to help purchase medical equipment for frontline doctors until the end of August, and Citibank would continue to match all donations made by employees nationwide.
“Let’s put our heart into this, and join hands to build a post-epidemic world of caring, Citibank said.
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
CROSS-STRAIT TENSIONS: The US company could switch orders from TSMC to alternative suppliers, but that would lower chip quality, CEO Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), whose products have become the hottest commodity in the technology world, on Wednesday said that the scramble for a limited amount of supply has frustrated some customers and raised tensions. “The demand on it is so great, and everyone wants to be first and everyone wants to be most,” he told the audience at a Goldman Sachs Group Inc technology conference in San Francisco. “We probably have more emotional customers today. Deservedly so. It’s tense. We’re trying to do the best we can.” Huang’s company is experiencing strong demand for its latest generation of chips, called
GLOBAL ECONOMY: Policymakers have a choice of a small 25 basis-point cut or a bold cut of 50 basis points, which would help the labor market, but might reignite inflation The US Federal Reserve is gearing up to announce its first interest rate cut in more than four years on Wednesday, with policymakers expected to debate how big a move to make less than two months before the US presidential election. Senior officials at the US central bank including Fed Chairman Jerome Powell have in recent weeks indicated that a rate cut is coming this month, as inflation eases toward the bank’s long-term target of two percent, and the labor market continues to cool. The Fed, which has a dual mandate from the US Congress to act independently to ensure