NO SAFETY NET:As Taiwan’s financial sector prepares to support the New Southbound Policy, legislators voiced concern that the nation’s banks might be left holding bad loans
Taipei Times
Date: Oct 20, 2017
By: Ted Chen / Staff reporter
Lawmakers at a meeting of the legislature’s Finance Committee yesterday raised concerns about the lack of government guarantees as the nation’s financial sector heeds the New Southbound Policy, as Taiwan does not have official diplomatic ties with the 18 countries targeted.
Regarding the government’s plans to arrange a US$3.5 billion credit line for an official development assistance program to aid infrastructure projects in Southeast Asia, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Alex Fai ( 費鴻泰) said the government must set aside the budget to help participating lenders in the event of default, especially state-run banks that are likely to bear the brunt of the risk exposure in carrying out government policies.
In response, Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics Minister Chu Tzer-ming (朱澤民) said that apart from NT$1.5 billion (US$49.62 million) in interest rate subsidies, no such budget has been planned for next year. [FULL STORY]
