A big-spending government urban renewal program has as much to do with politics ahead of next year's legislative and presidential polls as with a genuine plan to modernize Taiwan's cities.
The plan to redevelop 50 urban areas at a cost of NT$380 billion (US$11.58 billion) has attracted attention for its potential to give the property market a major boost, but many critics question the government's motives and its ability to implement it.
Such projects take a long time to complete and require careful planning and coordination, they say.
Earlier this month, the Cabinet approved the redevelopment of an initial four areas covering some 84 hectares, with one of the areas in central Taipei intended to become a new financial district dubbed "Taiwan's Wall Street." The others include harbor areas in Keelung and Kaohsiung.
The government plans a package of about 50 projects in all that will create some 105,000 jobs, with financing of NT$200 billion available to encourage private sector participation.
Observers agree that urban renewal is essential, but some say the redevelopment package is sketchy, and that regulations will have to be changed to encourage private participation.
"The first four projects announced fail to deliver construction details and real substance. I am not clear about how the government is going to carry it out," Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lai Shyh-bao (賴士葆) said.
"The government can construct a lot of new buildings but that does not mean it can easily build a `Wall Street' without improving the economic fundamentals. To me, the urban renewal program is just politics," Lai said.
National Chengchi University land economics professor Chang Chin-oh (
"Urban renewal needs long-term effort. The four pilot projects are not silver bullets [to solve problems], but may stir up short-term interest," Chang said.
An official at the Ministry of the Interior's construction and planning department, one of the program's planners, said all city and county governments were asked early last year to identify areas for redevelopment.
The ministry aimed to build environmentally friendly urban areas with more green space and use of more energy-efficient construction materials, the official said.
"The four pilot projects were the major ones ready to go ahead. We are hoping to attract foreign investors to participate in the four," said the official, who asked not to be identified.
He said neither large local developers nor foreign counterparts have approached the government so far.
Andrew Liu
"How to expropriate land from the private sector will be a major headache ... the process may take years to be done and I doubt foreign investors want to step in and get involved in the tedious process," he said.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last