Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) traveled to central Taiwan last Saturday to attend a groundbreaking ceremony at Taichung Airport. The idea is to upgrade it to an international airport. Given that there are still questions surrounding the Taoyuan Aerotropolis plan; that the issue of land expropriations have yet to be settled; that 17 of the country’s 18 airports are operating at a loss; and that the government wants to spend NT$10 billion (US$312.8 million) to reduce the commute on the Taoyuan airport MRT line by 13 minutes, some suspect that the Taichung airport upgrade is more about votes than anything else.
There has always been an element of populism and vote chasing around infrastructure project policy in Taiwan. These projects always fall short of expectations, frequently failing to raise national competitiveness and bringing little benefit to the public. Over the past 15 years, the volume of investment in public construction has fallen well below global average levels.
It is not right to say that the government neglects public construction or the country’s infrastructure. Expenditure on such projects regularly runs to more than 65 percent of the annual budget. In the vast majority of cases, the problem lies instead in the lack of long-term planning or strategy. The list is a litany of projects cobbled together by politicians with one eye fixed firmly on potential votes. It is clear that care has been taken to make sure the list covers as many bases as possible, encompassing as many people as it could and making sure they are evenly distributed around the country, ensuring everyone is kept happy. Nowhere do you see any major project of substantial economic scale. As a result, none of them really have much of an economic or social impact.
Let’s look at this in terms of how many airports we actually need. In the days before the high speed rail and highways, there was a case to be made for having one airport in every county and major city, to optimize domestic air links. However, the volume of economic activity only justifies about three, and certainly not 18. And in the context of the Asia-Pacific region and the global network, Taiwan really only has room for one dedicated international airport.
However, not even Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport makes the grade for an international airport. Only 24 million people go through the airport annually, a mere 0.81 percent of the 3 billion people who fly annually, and a far cry from the more than 40 million passengers going through most international airports. In terms of the annual cargo volume, Taoyuan sees less than 1.36 million tonnes, compared with the annual global volume of 400 billion tonnes.
If the government really wants to develop Taiwan as an international flight center, it is going to have to concentrate resources and put more investment into the idea. We have to see more flights and more cargo volume going through Taoyuan Airport before we can think of it in terms of a world-class airport. And only then can we think in terms of developing other secondary international airports to act in an auxiliary or supporting role.
The government’s initiative to upgrade Taichung airport into an international airport is, economically speaking, a mistake, a continuation of the public construction policy that has been followed for the last 15 years and which has yielded poor results despite the promises made. To continue following this policy is pure laziness. One is reminded of the vision President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) talked of when he first took office, when he laid out his policy of “deregulation and reconstruction.” I wonder if he might apply this idea to the national infrastructure policy and give us something to hope for?
Bert Lim is president of the World Economics Society.
TRANSLATED BY PAUL COOPER
There is much evidence that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is sending soldiers from the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) to support Russia’s invasion of Ukraine — and is learning lessons for a future war against Taiwan. Until now, the CCP has claimed that they have not sent PLA personnel to support Russian aggression. On 18 April, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelinskiy announced that the CCP is supplying war supplies such as gunpowder, artillery, and weapons subcomponents to Russia. When Zelinskiy announced on 9 April that the Ukrainian Army had captured two Chinese nationals fighting with Russians on the front line with details
On a quiet lane in Taipei’s central Daan District (大安), an otherwise unremarkable high-rise is marked by a police guard and a tawdry A4 printout from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs indicating an “embassy area.” Keen observers would see the emblem of the Holy See, one of Taiwan’s 12 so-called “diplomatic allies.” Unlike Taipei’s other embassies and quasi-consulates, no national flag flies there, nor is there a plaque indicating what country’s embassy this is. Visitors hoping to sign a condolence book for the late Pope Francis would instead have to visit the Italian Trade Office, adjacent to Taipei 101. The death of
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), joined by the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), held a protest on Saturday on Ketagalan Boulevard in Taipei. They were essentially standing for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), which is anxious about the mass recall campaign against KMT legislators. President William Lai (賴清德) said that if the opposition parties truly wanted to fight dictatorship, they should do so in Tiananmen Square — and at the very least, refrain from groveling to Chinese officials during their visits to China, alluding to meetings between KMT members and Chinese authorities. Now that China has been defined as a foreign hostile force,
On April 19, former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) gave a public speech, his first in about 17 years. During the address at the Ketagalan Institute in Taipei, Chen’s words were vague and his tone was sour. He said that democracy should not be used as an echo chamber for a single politician, that people must be tolerant of other views, that the president should not act as a dictator and that the judiciary should not get involved in politics. He then went on to say that others with different opinions should not be criticized as “XX fellow travelers,” in reference to
RSS