The Legislative Yuan yesterday passed the Trust Enterprise Law (
"The passage of the law has offered a legal basis for the KMT's plan to put its assets into trust," said KMT legislator Chu Li-luan (
The law stipulates that trust companies entrusted to operate assets of political parties or other major political institutions should regularly announce the operations of these entrusted-assets.
Observers said such a regulation would help trust companies operate in a transparent manner. "This article has provided trust companies with some basic rules to follow, which may encourage more transparent operation," said Wang Lee-rong (
The law also stipulates that political parties and other major political institutions are forbidden from investing or operating any trust company, and those who have done so should transfer their shareholding of the trust companies in question within one year after the law takes effect.
Legislators across party lines highlighted the economic significance of the law.
"The trust enterprise is an important part of the financial industry in Taiwan, but we had no specified law in the past to regulate its operations," said DPP Legislator Lin Chung-cheng (
"The passage of the law can be conducive to the sound development of the trust enterprise in Taiwan," said New Party legislator Hsieh Chi-ta (
Lin and Hsieh lamented that passage of the bill had been held up in the legislature over the past two years due to wrangling by political parties.
"Unfortunately the drafts were politicized," Hsieh said.
The DPP's Lin said, "I don't think it proper to delay the passage of such a finance-related bill simply because cross-party negotiations failed to reach consensus on the political party law draft."
The DPP legislative caucus had refused to support the passage of the law in various rounds of cross-party negotiations, said Hsieh, adding that the DPP said the law should be passed together with the Political Party Law (
The KMT had not pushed for the bill actively until its presidential candidate Lien Chan declared on Jan. 2 that political parties should end their business dealings and that the KMT would take the initiative by having the party's property put into trust.
The KMT's Business Management Committee said it welcomed the passage of the law.
"We will follow these regulations to implement our plan to have the KMT's property put into trust," said Liu Tseng-hwa (劉曾華), the committee's executive secretary.
The law was adopted after the New Party insisted in an earlier cross-party negotiation that the bill be reviewed at yesterday's session.
A number of other bills were also adopted yesterday, which was the last floor meeting for bill review in the current legislative session.
In a revision to the Civil Servant Services Act (公務員服務法), civil servants, who have had two five-day workweeks per month since 1998, will enjoy a comprehensive five-day workweek starting Jan. 1, 2001.
The revision to the HIV Prevention Law (
The Securities Exchange Law (
Taiwan’s Lee Chia-hao (李佳豪) on Sunday won a silver medal at the All England Open Badminton Championships in Birmingham, England, a career best. Lee, 25, took silver in the final of the men’s singles against world No. 1 Shi Yuqi (石宇奇) of China, who won 21-17, 21-19 in a tough match that lasted 51 minutes. After the match, the Taiwanese player, who ranks No. 22 in the world, said it felt unreal to be challenging an opponent of Shi’s caliber. “I had to be in peak form, and constantly switch my rhythm and tactics in order to score points effectively,” he said. Lee got
‘CROWN JEWEL’: Washington ‘can delay and deter’ Chinese President Xi Jinping’s plans for Taiwan, but it is ‘a very delicate situation there,’ the secretary of state said US President Donald Trump is opposed to any change to Taiwan’s “status quo” by force or extortion and would maintain that policy, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told the Hugh Hewitt Show host on Wednesday. The US’ policy is to maintain Taiwan’s “status quo” and to oppose any changes in the situation by force or extortion, Rubio said. Hewitt asked Rubio about the significance of Trump earlier this month speaking with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電) chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家) at the White House, a meeting that Hewitt described as a “big deal.” Asked whether the meeting was an indication of the
‘RELATIVELY STRONG LANGUAGE’: An expert said the state department has not softened its language on China and was ‘probably a little more Taiwan supportive’ China’s latest drills near Taiwan on Monday were “brazen and irresponsible threats,” a US Department of State spokesperson said on Tuesday, while reiterating Washington’s decades-long support of Taipei. “China cannot credibly claim to be a ‘force for stability in a turbulent world’ while issuing brazen and irresponsible threats toward Taiwan,” the unnamed spokesperson said in an e-mailed response to media queries. Washington’s enduring commitment to Taiwan will continue as it has for 45 years and the US “will continue to support Taiwan in the face of China’s military, economic, informational and diplomatic pressure campaign,” the e-mail said. “Alongside our international partners, we firmly
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday said it has lodged a protest with Pretoria after the name of the Taipei Liaison Office in South Africa was changed to the “Taipei Commercial Office” on the South African Department of International Relations and Cooperation’s (DIRCO) Web site. In October last year, the South African government asked Taiwan to relocate the Taipei Liaison Office, the nation’s de facto embassy, out of Pretoria. It later agreed to continue negotiating through official channels, but in January asked that the office be relocated by the end of this month. As of the middle of last month, DIRCO’s Web
RSS