In a hearing at the Taipei district court yesterday, the Eurotrain consortium -- which lost out to a Japanese group over the construction of Taiwan's high-speed railway line -- played tough to convince the court that the Taiwan High Speed Rail Corporation (THSRC) breached a binding agreement signed in 1997.
The EU group also wanted an injunction preventing the planned exchange of contracts with Japan's Shinkansen consortium.
At the same time, there was a high-profile meeting yesterday at the Taipei office of THSRC chairperson Nita Ing (
They expressed hopes the THSRC's final choice of partners would still be the European consortium.
Furious at being sidelined by the Taiwan-Shinkansen consortium of Japan, Eurotrain -- a joint venture of France's Alstom and Germany's Siemens AG -- has filed a request at the Taipei district court for a temporary injunction on ongoing negotiations between the THSRC and the Shinkansen, which began in mid-January this year.
The court set the hearing yesterday to clarify the legal relationships between THSRC and Eurotrain. Upon clarification it will determine whether the court will order the injunction.
Wang Chia-hui (
He said a decision was expected soon, as injunctions of this kind were often needed urgently.
Wang also said there was an obvious gap between the two parties' stories over their previous legal relationship.
If granted, the injunction is expected to block a deal worth over NT$90 billion between THSRC and the Japanese consortium.
But equally, if the petition is granted, then Eurotrain must also pay up to one third of the sum in dispute, as a deposit to ensure it will compensate THSRC for any damages it may suffer by the granting of the injunction.
Despite lengthy negotiations with Eurotrain, the THSRC awarded priority negotiating rights to the Japanese group on Dec. 28 last year.
Eurotrain, which has been vying for the high-speed rail project since 1997, has since protested to the THSRC over the switch and accused the company of breaking a 1997 agreement, which obliged THSRC to sign a contract with the European group if its price was considered reasonable.
However, THSRC, which was formally established as a consortium in May 1998, denied the 1997 agreement was binding as it was signed by Eurotrain and five main shareholders of the company, not the consortium itself.
Siemens AG chairman Heinrich von Pierer met with President Lee Teng-hui (
After a meeting with Minister of Transportation and Communication Lin Fong-cheng (
Ing, appearing little affected by the meeting, later said THSRC's final choice of the core system would be made on an evaluation based on business perspectives.
"THSRC is a private sector company and therefore the decision has to be made in the interests of its shareholders, as well as the public. Business is business," Ing said.
Meanwhile, THSRC announced yesterday it is to sign a contract with a consortium of local banks on Feb. 2 for a NT$323.3 billion syndicated loan.
DISCONTENT: The CCP finds positive content about the lives of the Chinese living in Taiwan threatening, as such video could upset people in China, an expert said Chinese spouses of Taiwanese who make videos about their lives in Taiwan have been facing online threats from people in China, a source said yesterday. Some young Chinese spouses of Taiwanese make videos about their lives in Taiwan, often speaking favorably about their living conditions in the nation compared with those in China, the source said. However, the videos have caught the attention of Chinese officials, causing the spouses to come under attack by Beijing’s cyberarmy, they said. “People have been messing with the YouTube channels of these Chinese spouses and have been harassing their family members back in China,”
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said there are four weather systems in the western Pacific, with one likely to strengthen into a tropical storm and pose a threat to Taiwan. The nascent tropical storm would be named Usagi and would be the fourth storm in the western Pacific at the moment, along with Typhoon Yinxing and tropical storms Toraji and Manyi, the CWA said. It would be the first time that four tropical cyclones exist simultaneously in November, it added. Records from the meteorology agency showed that three tropical cyclones existed concurrently in January in 1968, 1991 and 1992.
GEOPOLITICAL CONCERNS: Foreign companies such as Nissan, Volkswagen and Konica Minolta have pulled back their operations in China this year Foreign companies pulled more money from China last quarter, a sign that some investors are still pessimistic even as Beijing rolls out stimulus measures aimed at stabilizing growth. China’s direct investment liabilities in its balance of payments dropped US$8.1 billion in the third quarter, data released by the Chinese State Administration of Foreign Exchange showed on Friday. The gauge, which measures foreign direct investment (FDI) in China, was down almost US$13 billion for the first nine months of the year. Foreign investment into China has slumped in the past three years after hitting a record in 2021, a casualty of geopolitical tensions,
‘SOMETHING SPECIAL’: Donald Trump vowed to reward his supporters, while President William Lai said he was confident the Taiwan-US partnership would continue Donald Trump was elected the 47th president of the US early yesterday morning, an extraordinary comeback for a former president who was convicted of felony charges and survived two assassination attempts. With a win in Wisconsin, Trump cleared the 270 electoral votes needed to clinch the presidency. As of press time last night, The Associated Press had Trump on 277 electoral college votes to 224 for US Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic Party’s nominee, with Alaska, Arizona, Maine, Michigan and Nevada yet to finalize results. He had 71,289,216 votes nationwide, or 51 percent, while Harris had 66,360,324 (47.5 percent). “We’ve been through so
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