The South China Morning Post reports that Taiwan ETFs have now opened in Hong Kong:
....chief executive Paul Chow Man-yiu expects more exchange-traded funds to be cross-listed in Taiwan and Hong Kong and hopes to see ETFs cross-listed on the Hong Kong and mainland bourses.Exchange Traded Funds (Wiki) are basically funds that may be traded like stocks, but hold as their contents a representative set of stocks that enables them to track the movements of a particular stock index. They are vehicles for large institutional investors, and apparently have been criticized for having potential to manipulate market behavior. Remember that Chinese "institutional" investors are often State-owned....
Speaking after a listing ceremony for the first ETF cross-listed in Hong Kong, the Polaris Taiwan Top 50 Tracker Fund (HK), Mr Chow (right), said: "This is a good debut because Taiwan and Hong Kong regulators have worked out a framework to allow Taiwan-listed ETFs to list in Hong Kong and vice versa.
"We can expect more Taiwan ETFs to list here in future."
The ETF ended yesterday down 6.98 per cent at $9HK.86 after making its debut at $10HK.50, its high point for the day. A total of $824HK.4 million worth of the ETF changed hands.
This was the first cross-listing of a Taiwan ETF in the city since the Securities and Futures Commission signed a memorandum of understanding in May with the Taiwan Financial Supervisory Commission to facilitate cross-listing of ETFs in the two markets.
Two Hang Seng Bank-issued ETFs from Hong Kong listed on the Taiwan stock exchange last Friday under the agreement.
Mr Chow said he hoped to see an accord between mainland authorities and the SFC to work out a framework for ETF cross-listings between the Hong Kong and mainland markets.
This is just a signal of the deepening financial integration between Taiwan and China -- Beijing is going to permit cross-listing of ETFs between Hong Kong and China -- and the kind of thing the big boys in the financial industry wanted to see when they backed Ma Ying-jeou in the election last year. But as a Chinese scholar Li Fei (李非), deputy director of the Taiwan Research Center at Xiamen University, said last week at a cross-strait forum in Taiwan, China’s promotion of cross-strait economic exchanges is to accelerate annexation. Other benefits are nice, but not necessary.
_______________
Daily Links:
- Economist with good summary of post-Morakot political fallout
- Paul Katz at China Beat with another excellent post on Siaolin Village, with pics.
- Chinese Learn Online: list of all centers in Taiwan teaching Chinese
- Fun Videos: Secretary-General's Father's Day and 台灣的Super 救命兒
- Jon Adams in Global Post: seven days after Morakot
- Ryan pitches in in Pingtung with pics.
- The Hsu girls sing traditional Taiwan song to raise money for Morakot victims. With donation links.
- Taiwan Matters says Ma is worst.president.ever. With links to other good stuff.
- VOA says military tensions between Taiwan and China as bad as ever.
- Taiwan shows balance of payments surplus, meaning more $$ are coming in than going out.
- Ocean temperatures break record. Apparently our elites really don't give a damn whether their grandchildren have a planet.
[Taiwan] Don't miss the comments below! And check out my blog and its sidebars for events, links to previous posts and picture posts, and scores of links to other Taiwan blogs and forums!
It's time to Taiwanese to face the music. However, I will bet you that those who live in the mudslide pron areas will dig in their heels, refuse to move their villages, then scream after a huge disaster hits. If they are not willing to learn and change their behaviors after seeing this disaster, is it still government's fault when they or their families lose their lives.
ReplyDelete88水災面對台灣土地的真相定稿.pps
http://cid-98122e2fb7ca7609.skydrive.live.com/self.aspx/%e8%b3%87%e6%96%99/88%e6%b0%b4%e7%81%bd%e9%9d%a2%e5%b0%8d%e5%8f%b0%e7%81%a3%e5%9c%9f%e5%9c%b0%e7%9a%84%e7%9c%9f%e7%9b%b8%e5%ae%9a%e7%a8%bf.pps
ReplyDeleteHowever, I will bet you that those who live in the mudslide pron areas will dig in their heels, refuse to move their villages, then scream after a huge disaster hits. If they are not willing to learn and change their behaviors after seeing this disaster, is it still government's fault when they or their families lose their lives.
But you are not asking them to change their behavior, you are asking them to change their address, their ancestral lands (I wonder what type of behavior brings about monster storms).
See Michael's earlier entries, in which he posts material from a dissertation suggesting that the cause of the runoff and erosion is a result of major construction projects in the vicinity. If anyone should be changing its behavior, it should be the central government. Tell them to quit despoiling the land.
After reading this related article: http://seekingalpha.com/article/145691-taiwan-hong-kong-to-begin-cross-listing-etfs
ReplyDeleteThe last paragraph:
"Once China and Taiwan sign a financial memorandum of understanding (which could occur in July), it is hoped that cross-listing of Taiwan ETFs will expand to the Shanghai and Shenzhen Exchanges as well."
What's this MOU, anyone?
"But you are not asking them to change their behavior, you are asking them to change their address, their ancestral lands (I wonder what type of behavior brings about monster storms)."
ReplyDeleteDid you even read "88水災面對台灣土地的真相定稿.pps"?
Who did right or wrong is no relevance for their survival in the future.
http://tw.news.yahoo.com/article/url/d/a/090821/17/1pidn.html
The aborigines nowadays have over used the land as much as the Han Chinese did. The damage to the mountains by over development has been done. Period. Global warming is a reality and is bringing more extreme weather in the form of storms and drought to Taiwan. Take this 莫拉克颱風 as an example: Taiwan was in a drought situation one day, but the very next day one year worth of rain (2000mm-3000mm) got dumped on Taiwan in 3 days. This kind of extreme weather is here to stay and it's bound to happen again and again to Taiwan.
Either they relocate, or they should understand the risks and danger they are putting themselves under. Taiwan cannot afford to rebuild those broken mountain roads, bridges over and over and over.
Relocation would wind up to be the cheaper option in terms of Taiwan's economic investment and potential loss of lives. Taiwan is likely to be one of the first countries to be bankrupted by global warming effect!! (yea, and we have America to thank for the Global warming- what an incontinent truth.)
http://tw.news.yahoo.com/article/url/d/a/090821/17/1pjd2.html
http://tw.news.yahoo.com/article/url/d/a/090821/69/1pkvd.html
A better solution may be to ask the indigenous peoples what they need and how the government can help. Too often the government has come in as the paternalistic intruder and issued, by decree, how life should change for these people. Most of the time this has been for a colonizing goal i.e. resource extraction.
ReplyDeleteBy giving the indigenous peoples some agency over their lives the government could respect indigenous people's right to self-determination and cultural change.
For those who read Chinese, I strongly recommend the reporting of Hu Mu-ching, who blogs as 'Chyng'. She's been at the disaster zone and poking into whether or not the reservoir project contributed to the destruction of Siaolin. I'll reserve my judgement on that, but I have to say the powerpoint presentations Michael linked to seem to provide compelling evidence that all that dynamiting of delicate shale was not necessary.
ReplyDeleteI've translaAted part of one of Chyng's posts with beautiful writing. It's about the 'touqi' ceremony of the Siaolin villagers. It can be found at the new and improved RTI Hear in Taiwan blog.
"Anonymous said...
ReplyDeleteA better solution may be to ask the indigenous peoples what they need and how the government can help."
Of course, ideally we want the government to respect the local indigenous peoples, communicate the policies to the locals and of course it’s nice to do that in THEORY. However, I have seen in Taiwan how the locals drag the process on for YEARS and then see people die in the mean time, and THEN government gets the blame again. I also know for sure that the locals are more likely to dig in at all cost/死守家園, to protest/抗議, throw eggs/丟雞蛋. We have seen this happening over and over again in Taiwan when the government tries to implement any policy that impacts certain group of people's "way" of life. Sometimes the government just has to implement the right policy instead of giving in.
重建有希望! 五峰鄉成功遷村
This video/article shows a highly successful relocation case and unfortunately it’s the only relocation success story so far. But we also see how the locals resisted hard in the beginning and BLAMED the government for NOT agreeing to rebuild in the exact same location. I am glad that this group of indigenous peoples had better sense at the end so that they are all smile now living safely in their new homes that cost only $30,000 USD/house to build. That is why I keep saying sometimes the local/indigenous peoples also have to examine their own behaviors and instincts to 死守家園.
Perhaps the government should hire this county mayor who successfully implemented this relocation with the upcoming huge "relocation/rebuilding" projects.
Very cool that Paul is blogging.
ReplyDeleteInteresting that the only successful relocation projects so far were run by charities, not government...
ReplyDeleteDid you even read "88水災面對台灣土地的真相定稿.pps"?
ReplyDeleteWho did right or wrong is no relevance for their survival in the future.
http://tw.news.yahoo.com/article/url/d/a/090821/17/1pidn.html
The aborigines nowadays have over used the land as much as the Han Chinese did. The damage to the mountains by over development has been done. Period.
What utter nonsense. The types of villagers, who were displaced and affected by the Morakot are not related to the commercial interests that have plundered these lands.
Either they relocate, or they should understand the risks and danger they are putting themselves under. Taiwan cannot afford to rebuild those broken mountain roads, bridges over and over and over.
Left unanswered is whether the government is culpable for the destruction to these villages due to major construction projects such as the Tsengwen Reservoir. If so, then they are obligated to repair and restore these villages and to shore them up against further flooding.
It would not be necessary to keep rebuilding washed out roads and bridges over and over again, if they installed barriers, retaining walls, and aquaducts to divert flood water away from the villages. The engineering costs for restoration may be high, but if the government created this mess in the first place by initiating their construction projects, then they are liable for the damages.
Relocation would wind up to be the cheaper option in terms of Taiwan's economic investment and potential loss of lives. Taiwan is likely to be one of the first countries to be bankrupted by global warming effect!! (yea, and we have America to thank for the Global warming- what an incontinent truth.)
Global warming, or anthropogenic climate change, is far from proven. Indeed, reputable and responsible atmospheric scientists express a great deal of skepticism over these claims:
http://www.opinionjournal.com/extra/?id=110008597
All the shrill blustering from Al Gore on down does little to substantiate the alarmist oratory.
And that is the inconvenient truth.
Global warming, or anthropogenic climate change, is far from proven. Indeed, reputable and responsible atmospheric scientists express a great deal of skepticism over these claims:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.opinionjournal.com/extra/?id=110008597
ROFL. MIT's Lindzen is a well-known denialist shill, funded with Exxon and other fossil fuel dollars, since the early 1990s. He has zero credibility speaking on this issue, except among those who are not aware of the money behind him. Lindzen's page at ExxonSecrets:
Lindzen and don't forget to check out Heartland Institute, where he is a member.
Sadly, a number of prominent scientists have sold themselves for Exxon dollars over this issue. And so we cannot get anything meaningful done.
Grist.org has a nice piece on Lindzen, and more fundamentally, on the path we're on:
Here.
Michael
Global warming, or anthropogenic climate change, is far from proven.
ReplyDeleteWhat Michael said. But even if the current climate change was part of a regular geological cycle (i.e. not man made), that doesn't mean that Taiwan (and many many other places) won't be adversely affected by climate change.
At least I agree with most of the rest of your post.