The government aims to increase the nation’s electricity reserve margin from 7.5 percent to 15 percent by 2019, and up to 22 percent by 2025, as part of efforts to attract investment, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday.
“Taiwan Power Co (Taipower, 台電) has nine projects to increase electricity supply. We will ensure the state-run company finishes the projects on time to meet the government’s goal,” Minister of Economic Affairs Shen Jong-chin (沈榮津) told a media conference yesterday after a meeting with Premier William Lai (賴清德).
Shen briefed the ministry on the five main issues facing enterprises when investing in Taiwan, including constrained power and water supply, land and labor shortages, and a shortage of skilled workers.
“We need to work together to solve these issues to improve the nation’s investment environment and boost the economy,” Lai said before the briefing.
The ministry is to draft reward and punishment measures for Taipower, in a bid to push the firm to meet new power generator installation deadlines, Shen said.
Lai has requested that Taipower send the independent environmental impact assessment review committee the environmental impact assessments for the projects as early as it can to prevent any possible delays, Shen said.
The Water Resources Agency is to evaluate the feasibility of connecting the Taipei, New Taipei City, Taoyuan and Hsinchu water supply systems to form a regional water supply network, Shen said.
The network might offer more flexibility in allocating water supplies to enterprises within the region, Shen said.
“The premier said if it is feasible, just do it,” Shen added.
The Industrial Development Bureau is to continue evaluating increasing the floor area ratio in industrial zones from 210 percent to 300 percent, Shen said.
The bureau will do more research on a buyback plan of idled plots across the nation before presenting a more detailed proposal to the premier in the next briefing, Shen said.
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