Taiwan Today

The International News and Information Exposure Platform was established Dec. 19, 2006 to provide global investors with first-hand corporate information released by leading domestic corporations. These companies could use the INIEP to both offer and obtain transparent information and thus enhance their development, Premier Su Tseng-chang said at the platform's inauguration ceremony. Set up by the Taiwan Stock Exchange Corp., the semi-official Central News Agency and the U.S.-based Business Wire, the platform would offer a 24-hour service for Taiwan's listed and over-the-counter companies to issue press releases containing texts, video-audio files and projection drawings on major corporate information such as current operations, new-product R&D, transnational mergers and acquisitions, in Chinese and English. The complete press releases would be posted on this Internet platform within one hour and remain there for seven days, according to CNA. Information in English, in particular, would be sent to international news agencies such as the Associated Press, Reuters, Bloomberg and Dow Jones Newswires, and then passed by these agencies to electronic media including Business Wire, Yahoo Finance and CBS MarketWatch. This new platform enjoyed the "unique advantage" of online news distribution, the CNA reported Su as saying, adding that local companies seeking exposure in both domestic and international markets would be offered real-time access to media channels and Internet portals. In this way, multinational corporate executives, international stock investors and mutual fund managers could promptly obtain information about corporate developments. Jesse Chou, PR director of Delta Electronics Inc., Taiwan's computer power supply system manufacturer and the first customer to sign up for INIEP, said at the inauguration that his company would use the platform to release information regarding cooperation with its subsidiary Delstar Co. and Geneva-based STMicroelectronics NV, which was announced in November. This information was then promptly distributed to U.S., European and Australian media via the platform. This service would help the company respond to complaints from overseas customers and staff members that they could find only Chinese-language reports, Chou said. Other companies signing up included IBM, Advanced Micro Devices Inc., Morgan Stanley, Micron Technology Inc., American Superconductor Corp. and ExxonMobil Corp., said CNA.