A proposal by the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) caucus to set up an investigation committee into National Development Fund (NDF) investments passed during a plenary vote at the legislature yesterday.
Despite opposition from the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), the proposal passed with Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and TPP lawmakers, who hold a combined majority in the legislature, voting in favor of it.
Ruling and opposition parties would assign members to the committee according to their party’s legislative seats, with seven people from the KMT, six from the DPP and one from the TPP.
Photo: CNA
The first committee meeting, to be held on Dec. 2, would discuss and determine the committee’s operational rules.
The TPP caucus yesterday said that more than half of investments made by the agency resulted in heavy losses, including the investments in Roo Hsing Co (如興) in 2017, United Renewable Energy Co (聯合再生能源) in 2018 and Unity Opto Technology Co (東貝光電) in 2019.
A committee to investigate the agency’s investments and managerial misconduct should be established, with the results compiled into a report to inform about the reforms that are needed, it said.
The committee would investigate whether wrong decisions were made regarding investments, corruption was covered up due to external intervention and whether the fund properly reviewed its failed investments to make improvements, it added.
Investigations would also be conducted to see whether the agency could make corrections or implement exit strategies for investments that are no longer economically viable or have deviated from the government policy, it added.
The committee would also examine whether the agency invested in projects that could increase industrial benefits or improve industrial structures, such as industrial innovations, high-tech development, or energy and resource recovery, it said.
DPP Legislator Tsai Yi-yu (蔡易餘) criticized the investigation’s scope, which includes almost all the investments, and asked “whether the TPP is using the committee to influence stock prices of listed companies to engage in stock speculation.”
TPP caucus whip Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) said DPP lawmakers’ criticisms of the committee demonstrate “how fearful they are to see the committee established.”
Additional reporting by CNA
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
RSS