~ Le Viêt Nam, aujourd'hui. ~
The Vietnam News

Year :      [2004]      [2003]      [2002]      [2001]      [2000]      [1999]      [1998]      [1997]

Prominent Taiwanese developer in Vietnam commits suicide

TAIPEI - A prominent Taiwanese developer with major investments in Vietnam has committed suicide in downtown Taipei, police confirmed Saturday. Lawrence Ting, chairman of CX Technology and head of Central Trading and Development Corp., apparently jumped from the 15th floor of an office building in Taipei on Thursday, after visiting a lawyer's office there, police said.

The China Times newspaper reported that shortly after Ting's death, his family held a news conference in Taipei accusing Chen Ching-chih, a major shareholder in CT&D and chairman of Wan Hai Shipping Lines, of having waged a slanderous campaign against Ting. Chen had filed a lawsuit accusing Ting of embezzling hundreds of millions of New Taiwan dollars (millions of U.S. dollars) from the company since 1994, the Taipei Times reported. CT&D officials in Taiwan and Vietnam have declined to comment.

Ting's company, one of the largest foreign investors in Vietnam, was the majority owner in Phu My Hung Corp., a Taiwan-Vietnam joint venture that has invested some US$700 million (euro 570 million) in developing the massive Saigon South commercial and residential area, just south of Ho Chi Minh City. Phu My Hung had been involved in a major dispute with the Vietnamese government over its corporate income tax rate, Vietnamese media have reported.

Vietnam's Ministry of Planning and Investment had demanded the company pay a 25 percent corporate tax, which it said was the revised level for all real estate development business, while Phu My Hung argued that it should pay only the 10 percent tax specified in its initial investment license issued in 1993. The ministry, which set the new rate last October, has said that the original rate was only applicable to infrastructure and construction activities. Phu My Hung entered the housing and real estate business in 1998.

Ting had formally pleaded with the country's leadership to maintain the 10 percent rate but Prime Minister Phan Van Khai rejected the plea. Last week, the company said it had paid some US$37.3 million (euro 30.4 million) in taxes from 2000-2004 to the Vietnamese government, the Saigon Times newspaper said.

The Associated Press - September 25, 2004.