Land Bank

Recently due to surplus harvests of national agricultural produce like onions, garlics and bananas, their prices have not been as favorable as expected. To be empathetic to farmers’ hard work and to take care of farmers’ livelihood, the government has been advocating and encouraging produce purchases. To echo the government policy and to support farmers, Land Bank of Taiwan organized the charity event of “Buying Agricultural Produce off Farmers for Charitable Causes” and purchased 36.45 tons of produce from the Fruits & Vegetables Cooperative Association ROC, i.e., 2,250 bags of onions, 150 bags of garlics and 300 crates of bananas, which were distributed to various welfare organizations and charities via the Bank’s headquarters and 148 branches across the island in early May.    Today (May 3rd), the Bank’s chairperson, Joanne Ling, along with her colleagues, visited the Genesis Social Welfare Foundation (GSWF) to donate the produce, rendering a heart-warming sight. In her speech, Chairperson Ling pointed out that the GSWF is Taiwan’s only social welfare agency specializing in taking care of people in deep coma. The GSWF went through a demanding period in its early inception. But given efforts and persistent on the part of its founder, Mr. Cao Qing, the GSWF was able to start serving those in a vegetative state in 1986 under the name of “Genesis Care Center for Those in Coma”. In the following year (1987), the GSWF’s application to register its name was granted and had since teamed up with its sister organizations, the Huashan Social Welfare Foundation (HSWF) and the Zenan Homeless Social Welfare Foundation (ZHSWF), to set up many bases throughout Taiwan and take care of the disadvantaged, such as those in coma, elderlies living alone, and the homeless, while lessening the burden of many families and soothing their psychological pain.      In recent years, the Bank has been consistently working with the GSWF, the HSWF and the ZHSWF by organizing charity events of buying and donating agricultural produce. It is with the GSWF’s complete support network that the Bank can spread the love to those in need. We hope the general public will join in the act of kindness and purchase more of the country’s agricultural produce, not only for one’s good health but also to help with the farmers’ livelihood.    A 100% state-run bank under the Ministry of Finance, the Bank focuses on its finance expertise to generate income for the national treasury, as well as keeping the society’s disadvantaged groups in mind and inviting social welfare agencies to take part in the Bank’s annual charity events, so that the disadvantaged will receive love and care from the society. Further, we hope our action will set off ripple effects and draw more people from the general public to follow suit.

Since its inception in 1946, the Land Bank of Taiwan has been supporting the government in its promulgation of housing and land policies, handling various mortgage projects, providing capital financing, promoting private investment and public construction development. As the country’s economy grows and develops, the Bank has ranked at the top of the nation in the market of construction financing & crediting, house mortgages and real estate trust and become a leading bank in real estate finance, generating a pre-tax annual income of many dozens of billions for 7 consecutive years.        To support the government’s advocacy for physical education, the Bank set up a badminton team in 1976 which had since achieved fantastic results. The head of the Bank cares about the banking operation and the corporate social responsibilities too. Given continuous support in line with our central ethos, the Bank’s badminton team in the past two years has performed way better than before. Such as representing the country and winning many gold medals in the badminton groups & singles finals in 2017 Universiade; LIN YU HSIEN winning Men’s Singles Championship in 2018 China Masters (Super 100) and New Zealand Opens (Super 300); CHEN HUNG LING & WANG CHI LIN winning Men’s Doubles Championship; WANG CHI LIN & LEE CHIA HSIN wining the Mix Championship. In particular, after 5 hours’ fierce competition, with great coaching and outstanding performance of the players, we won the First and Third Places in Men’s and Women’s National Badminton Championships held in Tainan this month (May), a long-awaited victory since our last win four years ago.         The Bank’s badminton and tennis teams were set up to nurture outstanding young players with great potential from junior/senior high schools and universities to be reserve players. We take care of their everyday needs and livelihood. For many decades, we have built a positive reputation in Taiwan’s badminton sector and have become a key training ground for Taiwan’s national badminton team. In recent years, we have also been active in selecting and sending players for international tournaments so as to absorb experience for overseas competition and improve the techniques. Our next priority target is the 2018 Asian Games and 2020 Tokyo Olympics, hoping to achieve favorable results on behalf of the country, while fulfilling our corporate social responsibilities.        Additionally, to encourage school children and teenagers to engage in positive leisure activities during the school summer holidays and to work in tandem with the government’s policy in boosting Hualian’s tourism this year and to care for the families and disadvantaged groups affected by the earthquake in Hualian, we have organized badminton and tennis summer camps for young people in Taipei and Hualian to raise the participants’ interest in sports by way of recreational approaches.