The Kaohsiung Rapid Transit Corp (KRTC) yesterday rebutted media reports that it would declare bankruptcy in June.
At a press conference in Kaohsiung, KRTC president Liu San-chi (劉三錡) dismissed a report in this week’s issue of the Chinese-language Next Magazine that said Liu would announce during its annual shareholders’ meeting in June that the company was bankrupt.
Next said KRTC had debts of more than NT$5 billion (US$157.6 million), or more than half of its capital of NT$10 billion
The report said Liu would ask the city government to take over the company at a cost of NT$25.5 billion, as stated in the city government’s build-operate-transfer contract with KRTC.
Dismissing the report, Liu said its assets of NT$42.8 billion continued to outweigh its liabilities, at NT$37.7 billion.
He said he would only report at the shareholders’ meeting that KRTC’s deficit had exceeded half of the company’s capital as required by law, Liu said.
On hearing about the report, Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊) immediately voiced her concerns to Chang Chia-chu (張家祝), chairman of China Steel Co — KRTC’s biggest shareholder, the city government said.
The chairman told the mayor that the company would continue its operations and would not go bankrupt, the city government said.
KRTC mass rapid transit (MRT) system commenced operations two years ago, but the company is still in the red because of low passenger volume.
Liu blamed the city’s Bureau of Mass Rapid Transit for the story, saying someone from the bureau was feeding the magazine wrong information in a bid to have him replaced.
Bureau of Mass Rapid Transit Director-General Chen Kai-ling (陳凱凌) dismissed the allegations.
In other news, the city government yesterday began to invite proposals from international architects for the nation’s first oceanic culture and pop music center.
The center will be built on Kaohsiung Harbor piers 11 to 15.
Yang Ming-chou (楊明州), deputy director-general of the city’s Public Works Bureau, told a press conference in Taipei that the city hoped to build an international landmark.
The total budget for the 11.89-hectare project is set at NT$4.3 billion and is expected to be completed by the end of 2015, Yang said.
The project will include an indoor hall with at least 3,500 seats and another outdoor venue with 12,000 seats, Yang said.
More information is available on www.kpop.com.tw.
A decision to describe a Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs statement on Singapore’s Taiwan policy as “erroneous” was made because the city-state has its own “one China policy” and has not followed Beijing’s “one China principle,” Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Tien Chung-kwang (田中光) said yesterday. It has been a longstanding practice for the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to speak on other countries’ behalf concerning Taiwan, Tien said. The latest example was a statement issued by the PRC after a meeting between Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財) and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on the sidelines of the APEC summit
The Taipei Zoo on Saturday said it would pursue legal action against a man who was filmed climbing over a railing to tease and feed spotted hyenas in their enclosure earlier that day. In videos uploaded to social media on Saturday, a man can be seen climbing over a protective railing and approaching a ledge above the zoo’s spotted hyena enclosure, before dropping unidentified objects down to two of the animals. The Taipei Zoo in a statement said the man’s actions were “extremely inappropriate and even illegal.” In addition to monitoring the hyenas’ health, the zoo would collect evidence provided by the public
A road safety advocacy group yesterday called for reforms to the driver licensing and retraining system after a pedestrian was killed and 15 other people were injured in a two-bus collision in Taipei. “Taiwan’s driver’s licenses are among the easiest to obtain in the world, and there is no mandatory retraining system for drivers,” Taiwan Vision Zero Alliance, a group pushing to reduce pedestrian fatalities, said in a news release. Under the regulations, people who have held a standard car driver’s license for two years and have completed a driver training course are eligible to take a test
Taiwan’s passport ranked 34th in the world, with access to 141 visa-free destinations, according to the latest update to the Henley Passport Index released today. The index put together by Henley & Partners ranks 199 passports globally based on the number of destinations holders can access without a visa out of 227, and is updated monthly. The 141 visa-free destinations for Taiwanese passport holders are a slight decrease from last year, when holders had access to 145 destinations. Botswana and Columbia are among the countries that have recently ended visa-free status for Taiwanese after “bowing to pressure from the Chinese government,” the Ministry
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