State-run Taiwan Sugar Corp's (Taisugar,
"Taisugar lost over NT$2 billion last year. Were there not revenues of NT$3.9 billion from selling real estate, there would have been a deficit of some NT$6 billion," Wu said yesterday at the DPP's central headquarters while confirming his resignation as the ruling party's secretary-general.
Facing an uphill battle, Wu added that he would do his best to thoroughly review the company's finances and brainstorm new managerial concepts to improve its profitability.
Taisugar President Tung Ruey-pin (
At the meeting, KMT legislator Huang The-fu (
Citing the fact that many of the company's investment decisions are mandated by the cenral government, Tung added that 90 percent of Taisugar's land was sold to comply with government construction projects.
"Only 5 or 6 percent of our land sales were initiated by Taisugar," Tung said.
While blaming the government's sugar-industry policy as the main culprit behind the company's losses, Tung also said that Taisugar is closing down six local plants this year and planning to build sugar-making plants in Vietnam or Australia to reduce costs and improve its efficiency to compete with post-WTO foreign sugar imports.
The task force, moreover, yesterday probed the firms' injection of capital into several investment projects, which opposition lawmakers said were based not on economics but "political correctness."
They questioned whether profits would be generated from Taisugar's NT$5 billion re-investment in the Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp (THSRC,
Independent lawmaker Sisy Chen (
Singling out THSRC, which is a build-operate-transfer (BOT) project, Chen said that "in fact, the government should not have granted any funds to the project, let alone funds from loss-making Taisugar."
In response, the banker-turned-Taisugar president Tung, who took office last Wednesday, said that Taisugar's investments have all undergone feasibility studies and that the investment in the THSRC was finalized in 1990.
He offered his own assessment, however, saying that the railway investment -- either by granting funds or selling land -- should offer a reasonable return, since Taisugar-owned land adjacent to the train stations that will be valuable in future development projects.
The task force, nevertheless, yesterday decided to shelve Taisugar's budget review until the company's financial difficulties improve.
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