Critics blamed extravagant design and materials specifications, waste, inefficiency and corruption.
nancial
The Securities and Exchange Commission completed an initial draft of a new comprehensive futures trading law that would cover both offshore and domestic trading. It would thus incorporate the existing foreign futures trading law and provide the legal basis for domestic futures exchange. The Finance Ministry favours allowing financial futures trading first in order to complement the maturing stock and bond markets. Commodities contracts would be added later.
The SEC said it had "decided in principle" to remove a number of restrictions on foreign institutional investment in the Taipei stock market. Currently, no single institution may hold more than 5 per cent of a company's listed shares, and aggregate foreign shareholding may not exceed 10 per cent. The SEC said that these limits might be scrapped completely for some
some listed companies, allowing 100 per cent foreign ownership of listed shares.
The SEC would also revise the current 40 per cent
40 per cent ceiling on aggregate foreign sharehgolding in domestic stockbrokerages, and the 49 per cent ceiling on foreign shareholdings in investment trust companies.
In addition, holders of convertible Eurobonds issued by Taiwanese companies would be allowed to convert them to stocks (currently impossible), and non-resident foreign individuals would be allowed to invest directly in the stock market.
The SEC also announced plans to revise rules on the issuance of overseas convertible bonds and Depositary Receipts by Taiwanese companies. Currently, funds raised by these issues must be used offshore. The SEC would seek the Central Bank's approval to allow the funds to be remitted into Taiwan for manufacturing investment projects, up to a maximum of 3 billion US dollars. So far, only a handful of companies have offered debt or equity instruments overseas, worth a total of about 1 billion US dollars.
The bad news was that no details or timetable were given for any of these measures, and the loud press coverage they received may have an attempt to pump up the stock market prior to November's regional elections. However, it was reported that the SEC had told President Lee in a meeting concerning Taiwan's Gatt-entry on 6 October that ALL restrictions on foreign investment in the stock market would be removed within a year. Foreign access the market would be comparable to the world's major markets.
Transportation
to
According to an Agence France Press report from Rome on 2 October, the Italian Foreign Minister announced that direct
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