‘CUT ITS WRISTS’:A New Power Party lawmaker asked the premier if Ching Fu won the contract after signing an investment deal with a Chinese local government
Taipei Times
Date: Oct 18, 2017
By: Chen Wei-han / Staff reporter
The Cabinet would dissolve a multibillion-dollar contract to build minesweeper ships
A minesweeper ordered by the Ministry of National Defense from Ching Fu Shipbuilding Co is under construction in a dry dock in Italy in an undated photograph. Photo courtesy of Ching Fu Shipbuilding Co
with financially troubled Ching Fu Shipbuilding Co (慶富造船) if necessary, Premier William Lai (賴清德) told lawmakers yesterday.
Ching Fu, one of the nation’s largest private shipbuilders, won a NT$35.85 billion (US$1.19 billion at the current exchange rate) contract with the Ministry of National Defense in October 2014 to build six minesweepers as part of the nation’s indigenous shipbuilding and upgrade program, but it is suspected of using the money to invest in projects in China and of defrauding banks.
Prosecutors in August questioned company executives about NT$3 billion in loans that are suspected of having been obtained under false pretenses. [FULL STORY]