Minister of Economic Affairs Shih Yen-shiang (施顏祥) yesterday reiterated the government’s ban on Chinese investment in the local insurance industry.
“We will follow the regulations to see if there is any Chinese capital involved and if the amount is over the limit,” Shih said at a legislative question-and-answer session in response to questions about a foreign consortium’s takeover of Nan Shan Life Insurance Co (南山人壽).
On Tuesday, a consortium led by Primus Financial Holdings Ltd and Hong Kong-based China Strategic Holdings Ltd (中策集團) said it would acquire American International Group Inc’s (AIG) 97.57 percent stake in Nan Shan Life Insurance for US$2.15 billion.
The deal has raised concerns that China-sourced funds may be involved.
Shih said Chinese companies cannot invest directly in Taiwan’s financial or insurance companies because this sector is not open to Chinese investment, although Chinese funds funneled through a third party and not in excess of 30 percent of the total investment are allowed.
An investment would be banned if a Chinese company was found to have great influence on the investing party, he said.
Starting in July, Chinese companies and investors have been allowed to submit investment proposals to the government when a total of 100 sectors in the manufacturing, service and infrastructure industries opened to Chinese investment.
In response to legislators’ questions about the proposed economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA) between Taiwan and China, Shih said both sides hope to sign the agreement next spring, but “the earlier, the better.”
A fourth round of non-official negotiations with Chinese authorities will be held later this month, the minister said, adding that Taiwan has made clear there will be no more opening to China in the agriculture sector or to Taiwan’s job market for Chinese labor.
The early harvest list has not been finalized, but will not surpass 1,000 items, Shih said.
Shih also discussed Taiwan Memory Co (TMC, 台灣創新記憶體公司), which is government sponsored, after some legislators wondered if the company could turn into a second Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp (台灣高鐵), which has incurred huge losses.
Shih said that TMC’s funding application was still pending government approval. The company has requested up to NT$5 billion (US$155 million) from the government, Shih said, adding that the government would not provide more than NT$10 billion if the case is given a green light.
He said that the government had a clear strategy for revitalizing the local dynamic random access memory (DRAM) industry.
Companies must obtain core technologies and show commitment to remain rooted in Taiwan or they will not get government funding.
Shih said that TMC would be a private company and the government would hold less than a 50 percent stake in it.
Local chip packagers and testers Siliconware Precision Industries Co (矽品精密) and King Yuan Electronics Co Ltd (京元電子) have said they would invest in TMC, which aims to transfer technologies from Japanese partner Elpida Memories Inc.
Taiwan’s technology protection rules prohibits Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) from producing 2-nanometer chips abroad, so the company must keep its most cutting-edge technology at home, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. Kuo made the remarks in response to concerns that TSMC might be forced to produce advanced 2-nanometer chips at its fabs in Arizona ahead of schedule after former US president Donald Trump was re-elected as the next US president on Tuesday. “Since Taiwan has related regulations to protect its own technologies, TSMC cannot produce 2-nanometer chips overseas currently,” Kuo said at a meeting of the legislature’s
GEOPOLITICAL ISSUES? The economics ministry said that political factors should not affect supply chains linking global satellite firms and Taiwanese manufacturers Elon Musk’s Space Exploration Technologies Corp (SpaceX) asked Taiwanese suppliers to transfer manufacturing out of Taiwan, leading to some relocating portions of their supply chain, according to sources employed by and close to the equipment makers and corporate documents. A source at a company that is one of the numerous subcontractors that provide components for SpaceX’s Starlink satellite Internet products said that SpaceX asked their manufacturers to produce outside of Taiwan because of geopolitical risks, pushing at least one to move production to Vietnam. A second source who collaborates with Taiwanese satellite component makers in the nation said that suppliers were directly
Top Taiwanese officials yesterday moved to ease concern about the potential fallout of Donald Trump’s return to the White House, making a case that the technology restrictions promised by the former US president against China would outweigh the risks to the island. The prospect of Trump’s victory in this week’s election is a worry for Taipei given the Republican nominee in the past cast doubt over the US commitment to defend it from Beijing. But other policies championed by Trump toward China hold some appeal for Taiwan. National Development Council Minister Paul Liu (劉鏡清) described the proposed technology curbs as potentially having
EXPORT CONTROLS: US lawmakers have grown more concerned that the US Department of Commerce might not be aggressively enforcing its chip restrictions The US on Friday said it imposed a US$500,000 penalty on New York-based GlobalFoundries Inc, the world’s third-largest contract chipmaker, for shipping chips without authorization to an affiliate of blacklisted Chinese chipmaker Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC, 中芯). The US Department of Commerce in a statement said GlobalFoundries sent 74 shipments worth US$17.1 million to SJ Semiconductor Corp (盛合晶微半導體), an affiliate of SMIC, without seeking a license. Both SMIC and SJ Semiconductor were added to the department’s trade restriction Entity List in 2020 over SMIC’s alleged ties to the Chinese military-industrial complex. SMIC has denied wrongdoing. Exports to firms on the list
RSS