The Ministry of National Defense yesterday said an ultimatum to Ching Fu Shipbuilding Co (慶富造船) to pay its debt in time or face termination of its minesweeper contract still stands, regardless of reports about a billionaire “patriotic citizen” being willing to take over a scandal-plagued project.
Ching Fu founder and president Chen Ching-nan (陳慶南) was quoted by the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the sister newspaper of the Taipei Times) as saying that he was mulling selling two-thirds of the company’s stock to the unidentified billionaire.
Chen was quoted as saying that the billionaire expressed concern that the government’s indigenous shipbuilding program would suffer from the Ching Fu scandal and wanted to establish a professional team to take over the minesweeper project to ensure the success of the nation’s defense industry.
Photo: Huang Liang-chieh, Taipei Times
Chen at noon yesterday met with the mysterious billionaire, Liberty Times sources said, adding that whether the two would be able to sign a memorandum of understanding was crucial to the company being able to retain the contract.
As US defense giant Lockheed Martin, a subcontractor for the project, has already acquired an export permit from Italy’s Intermarine, the minesweeper project would be able to proceed if the deal goes through, Chen was quoted as saying.
Should the unnamed investor back out, Chen said he has considered bequeathing two-thirds of the company’s stock to the government, provided it would be willing to accept the arrangement.
However, the ministry stood by its statement last month, saying that the contract would be terminated unless Ching Fu pays back NT$2.4 billion (US$79.9 million) by today and lays out a plan to overcome delays to scheduled work.
The ministry declined to comment on the mystery billionaire.
The bottom line on Ching Fu is that it must make up for lost time and pay back its debts within the alloted time, the ministry said.
Additional reporting by Huang Liang-chieh
Japan has deployed long-range missiles in a southwestern region near China, the Japanese defense minister said yesterday, at a time when ties with Beijing are at their lowest in recent years. The missiles were installed in Kumamoto in the southern region of Kyushu, as Japan is attempting to shore up its military capacity as China steps up naval activity in the East China Sea. “Standoff defense capabilities enable us to counter the threat of enemy forces attempting to invade our country ... while ensuring the safety of our personnel,” Japanese Minister of Defense Shinjiro Koizumi said. “This is an extremely important initiative for
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) today accepted an invitation from Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to lead a delegation to China next month, saying she hopes to promote the peaceful development of cross-strait relations and bring stability to the Taiwan Strait. “I am grateful and happy to accept this invitation,” Cheng said in a statement from the KMT chairperson’s office. Cheng said she hopes both sides can work together to promote the peaceful development of cross-strait relations, enhance exchange and cooperation, bring stability to the Taiwan Strait and improve people’s livelihoods. At today's news conference, Cheng said any efforts to
MORE POPULAR: Taiwan Pass sales increased by 59 percent during the first quarter compared with the same period last year, the Tourism Administration said The Tourism Administration yesterday said that it has streamlined the Taiwan Pass, with two versions available for purchase beginning today. The tourism agency has made the pass available to international tourists since 2024, allowing them to access the high-speed rail, Taiwan Railway Corp services, four MRT systems and four Taiwan Tourist Shuttles. Previously, five types of Taiwan Pass were available, but some tourists have said that the offerings were too complicated. The agency said only two types of Taiwan Pass would be available, starting from a three-day pass with the high-speed rail and a three-day pass with Taiwan Railway Corp. The former costs NT$2,800
The nation’s fastest supercomputer, Nano 4 (晶創26), is scheduled to be launched in the third quarter, and would be used to train large language models in finance and national defense sectors, the National Center for High-Performance Computing (NCHC) said. The supercomputer, which would operate at about 86.05 petaflops, is being tested at a new cloud computing center in the Southern Taiwan Science Park in Tainan. The exterior of the server cabinet features chip circuitry patterns overlaid with a map of Taiwan, highlighting the nation’s central position in the semiconductor industry. The center also houses Taiwania 2, Taiwania 3, Forerunner 1 and
RSS