Taking the Rebar Asia Pacific Group (力霸亞太企業集團) scandal as a guide, Hu Sheng-cheng (胡勝正), the newly appointed chairman of the Financial Supervisory Commis-sion, said last night that efforts to stabilize the market and strengthen financial rules and regulations would top his agenda.
Hu made the remark in an interview with the Central News Agency (CNA) after Cabinet Spokesman Cheng Wen-tsang (
Hu is the fourth chairman of the commission and follows Shih Jun-ji (施俊吉), who resigned earlier this month. Shih tendered his resignation after a run on Rebar-linked The Chinese Bank (中華銀行).
Kong Jaw-sheng (
Lu Daung-yen (呂東英) took Kong's position temporarily before he was replaced by Shih in August.
The frequent changes at the head of the commission and the involvement of several high-ranking officials' in scandals have battered its image. Boosting the morale of the commission will therefore be another priority, Hu said.
In the long term, Hu said he would carry out the many financial reforms the Cabinet has proposed.
Hu, 67, earned his doctorate in economics at the University of Rochester. Before heading the Council of Economic Planning and Development (CEPD), he held the position of minister without portfolio, appointed in 2001, with duties focusing on negotiating and supervising financial policies.
"I accepted the position calmly, because I'm familiar with financial policies and related affairs from my past work experience," Hu said.
Hu also served as a director at the central bank and the Chung Hwa Institution for Economic Research (
Meanwhile, describing her new appointment as a "homecoming," Hu's successor at the CEPD, Ho Mei-yueh (
Ho, 56, entered the Ministry of Economic Affairs in 1975 as a technician in the Industrial Development Bureau.
Ho moved up through the hierarchy to become minister in 2004. She served as vice chairwoman of the CEPD before taking the helm.
As a career woman, Ho pledged to help women reach their potential in the workplace by providing more vocational training tailored for female workers.
TRADE WAR: Tariffs should also apply to any goods that pass through the new Beijing-funded port in Chancay, Peru, an adviser to US president-elect Donald Trump said A veteran adviser to US president-elect Donald Trump is proposing that the 60 percent tariffs that Trump vowed to impose on Chinese goods also apply to goods from any country that pass through a new port that Beijing has built in Peru. The duties should apply to goods from China or countries in South America that pass through the new deep-water port Chancay, a town 60km north of Lima, said Mauricio Claver-Carone, an adviser to the Trump transition team who served as senior director for the western hemisphere on the White House National Security Council in his first administration. “Any product going
TECH SECURITY: The deal assures that ‘some of the most sought-after technology on the planet’ returns to the US, US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo said The administration of US President Joe Biden finalized its CHIPS Act incentive awards for Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), marking a major milestone for a program meant to bring semiconductor production back to US soil. TSMC would get US$6.6 billion in grants as part of the contract, the US Department of Commerce said in a statement yesterday. Though the amount was disclosed earlier this year as part of a preliminary agreement, the deal is now legally binding — making it the first major CHIPS Act award to reach this stage. The chipmaker, which is also taking up to US$5 billion
High above the sparkling surface of the Athens coastline, the cranes for building the 50-floor luxury tower centerpiece of Greece’s future “smart city” look out over the Saronic Gulf. At their feet, construction machinery stirs up dust. Its backers say the 8 billion euro (US$8.43 billion) project financed by private funds is a symbol of Greece’s renaissance after the years of financial stagnation that saw investors flee the country. However, critics see it more as a future “ghetto for the rich.” It is hard to imagine that 10km from the Acropolis, a new city “three times the size of Monaco”
STRUGGLING BUSINESS: South Korea’s biggest company and semiconductor manufacturer’s buyback fuels concerns that it could be missing out on the AI boom Samsung Electronics Co plans to buy back about 10 trillion won (US$7.2 billion) of its own stock over the next year, putting in motion one of the larger shareholder return programs in its history. South Korea’s biggest company would repurchase the stock in stages over the coming 12 months, it said in a regulatory filing on Friday. As a first step, it would buy back about 3 trillion won of paper starting today up until February next year, all of which it would cancel. The board would deliberate on how best to effect the remaining 7 trillion won of buybacks. The move