Page 27 - 2018 Annual Report Council of Agriculture, Executive Yuan

Annual Report 2018 Council of Agriculture, Executive Yuan fishermen’s associations, and 94 people were hired or promoted. A total of 1,369 people signed up for the exams. Following written and oral tests, 38 people were hired at fishermen’s association to handle administrative affairs, 21 to handle nancial affairs, and 20 to handle business affairs. The total number hired was 79, making the hiring rate 9%. Under the “Act of Irrigation Association Organization,” the COA monitored and guided irrigation associations in handling irrigation and drainage activities, and promoted irrigation association reform. In addition, to minimize the burden on farmers, irrigation associations have long ceased collecting membership fees, with the government instead appropriating NT$2.23 billion in 2018 to subsidize irrigation associations. (a) Diversification of agricultural financial services In order to strengthen the quality of services and competitiveness of farmers’ and fishermen’s associations, the COA assigned the Agricultural Bank of Taiwan (ABT) to integrate services and channels at the credit departments of farmers’ and fishermen’s associations. In June of 2010 the ABT signed a contract with farmers’ and fishermen’s associations covering items for which their credit departments could accept payments on behalf of others, and created a comprehensive system of financial services. Under this system, in 2018 credit departments were allowed to provide 929 types of payment acceptance services, including insurance premiums for national pensions; payments for water, telecoms, credit cards, gas, and cable TV; and the fuel tax for cars and motorcycles. As of the end of 2018, 1,171 operational centers of 311 credit departments had collected 125.08 million payments, totaling NT$501.5 billion. In coordination with the government’s “New Southbound Policy,” the Agricultural Credit Guarantee Fund set aside NT$1 billion to provide credit guarantee services to assist Taiwanese investors in New Southbound Policy partner countries to get the capital they need. (b) The credit departments of farmers’ and shermen’s associations In 2018 the COA continued to take measures to improve the operational structure of credit departments. As of the end of 2018, total deposits at all credit departments were NT$1.9 trillion, with total outstanding loans of NT$1.1 trillion. Before- tax net profit was NT$5.4 billion. The non- performing loan ratio was 0.45%, and of the 311 credit departments in the country, 252 had non-performing loan ratios of less than 1%, of which 57 had non-performing loan ratios of 0%, indicating that loan quality was quite high. 25