When President Chen Shui-bian (
It has now become a matter of urgency for the central government to put a stop to the unreasonable increase in public works spending by local governments.
The development of industrial zones is a typical example of how the the national resources have been misused. Under the Ministry of Economic Affairs alone, around 800 hectares of industrial zones across the nation remain vacant, which converts into an investment of NT$30 to NT$40 billion, which has not seen any return. Besides, the occupancy rate of industrial zones under the National Science Council is just 50 percent.
Over the past few years, the transformation of the nation's industrial structure, Taiwan's economic slump, and changes in the domestic and international commercial structure of other countries have challenged the development of the nation's industrial zones.
In the past, industrial zones developed by the Industrial Development Bureau (IDB) had been competitive and profitable as the price of the land used by industrial parks across the nation was only one-third or two-thirds of the market price.
However, the stagnant economic growth of the nation has made it difficult for the government to sell off these industrial zones, either through state-run or private enterprises. The compounding of interest on these properties has pushed prices up even further, so that land in industrial zones is no longer competitive with other areas.
The root of the problem lies with the provisions of government investment incentive programs and the Statute for Upgrading Industries (
On the technological and economic front, California's Silicon Valley is much stronger than Taiwan. Major chip-makers and optoelectronic component manufacturers are in the north of Silicon Valley and biotech companies are in the south. Using land for multiple purposes is becoming the mainstream idea, and each county or region can also have a distinctive industry. Clearly, this is something the government can learn from the US.
According to statistics, there are currently nearly 2,500 hectares of land that the government has approved or is in the process of approving for use as industrial zones. If we add the land already available for these purposes, there is sufficient land designated for industrial zones to meet the needs of the next five years. Quantity is clearly not a problem and we should now focus on quality.
Local governments should take careful account and plan for the future, rather than rushing ahead and then looking for support from the central government further down the track. The government should first seek to draw up an effective and comprehensive plan regarding public works projects, such as industrial zones, airports and harbors. It shouldn't give local governments a free hand to use such projects to pay/settle political debts, in total disregard for the needs of the market, for such political interference will ultimately harm the nation's economic development.
Andrew Huang is the director of the National Volunteer Association.
TRANSLATED BY DANIEL CHENG
There has been much catastrophizing in Taiwan recently about America becoming more unreliable as a bulwark against Chinese pressure. Some of this has been sparked by debates in Washington about whether the United States should defend Taiwan in event of conflict. There also were understandable anxieties about whether President Trump would sacrifice Taiwan’s interests for a trade deal when he sat down with President Xi (習近平) in late October. On top of that, Taiwan’s opposition political leaders have sought to score political points by attacking the Lai (賴清德) administration for mishandling relations with the United States. Part of this budding anxiety
The diplomatic dispute between China and Japan over Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s comments in the Japanese Diet continues to escalate. In a letter to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, China’s UN Ambassador Fu Cong (傅聰) wrote that, “if Japan dares to attempt an armed intervention in the cross-Strait situation, it would be an act of aggression.” There was no indication that Fu was aware of the irony implicit in the complaint. Until this point, Beijing had limited its remonstrations to diplomatic summonses and weaponization of economic levers, such as banning Japanese seafood imports, discouraging Chinese from traveling to Japan or issuing
The diplomatic spat between China and Japan over comments Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi made on Nov. 7 continues to worsen. Beijing is angry about Takaichi’s remarks that military force used against Taiwan by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) could constitute a “survival-threatening situation” necessitating the involvement of the Japanese Self-Defense Forces. Rather than trying to reduce tensions, Beijing is looking to leverage the situation to its advantage in action and rhetoric. On Saturday last week, four armed China Coast Guard vessels sailed around the Japanese-controlled Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台), known to Japan as the Senkakus. On Friday, in what
On Nov. 8, newly elected Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) and Vice Chairman Chi Lin-len (季麟連) attended a memorial for White Terror era victims, during which convicted Chinese Communist Party (CCP) spies such as Wu Shi (吳石) were also honored. Cheng’s participation in the ceremony, which she said was part of her efforts to promote cross-strait reconciliation, has trapped herself and her party into the KMT’s dark past, and risks putting the party back on its old disastrous road. Wu, a lieutenant general who was the Ministry of National Defense’s deputy chief of the general staff, was recruited
RSS