The Executive Yuan is considering the possibility of allowing the private sector to build and manage national freeways in the future in a bid to make the construction and management of such facilities more effective.
"At the current stage, we're thinking of allowing the private sector to manage freeways in western Taiwan after paying a certain amount of money to obtain the management permit from us. Then we can take the money to help build freeways in eastern Taiwan," said Premier Yu Shyi-kun during an inspection trip to Hualien County yesterday.
Yu said that he had discussed the matter with President Chen Shui-bian (
"Both of them expressed their support for the idea," he said. "I expect to see a thorough report from the transportation ministry within three months."
The Cabinet has planned to build a freeway network in eastern Taiwan connecting Taipei with Hualien and Taitung counties.
The 31km Taipei-Ilan Freeway, which has already been completed, connects the Second Freeway in Taipei City with Ilan County.
The 24km extension line connecting Ilan with Suao is scheduled for completion by next year. Once it is finished, the three-hour drive from Taipei to Ilan via the Taipei-Ilan Highway will be shortened to 40 minutes.
The 86.5km Suao-Hualien Freeway is estimated to cost NT$96 billion to build and scheduled for completion by 2011.
The 173km line connecting Hualien and Taitung will cost an estimated NT$92 billion to build.
"The Cabinet will do whatever it can to help the county improve infrastructure construction so that more people will travel to Hualien," Yu said.
* Premier Yu Shyi-kun said yesterday that freeways in Western Taiwan might be privatized in order to fund projects in Eastern Taiwan.
* Yu also allocated NT$180 million for the expansion of the Hualien Airport.
* He also allotted NT$17 million to help turn the old Hualien station into a park.
To help bring in more tourists from across the strait, Yu pledged to use "appropriate channels to conduct the necessary negotiations" with China.
"I hope to see more people from China visiting Taiwan following the government's approval for Chinese students studying abroad and Chinese nationals with a foreign permanent residency to visit Taiwan," Yu said.
According to Yu, about 2.62 million foreign tourists visited Taiwan last year and most of them were from China and Japan. Tourism revenues also accounted for 3.5 percent of last year's GDP.
"Our goal is to have 3.5 million foreign tourists traveling to Taiwan and to see tourism take up 5 percent of the GDP in 2004," Yu said.
To help the county better develop the area, Yu also pledged to give more funding for the county's urban development projects.
In a bid to speed up the NT$380 million construction project of the Hualien Harbor, Yu said that the Cabinet would allocate NT$122 million this year.
The project has been held up because of discord between the Hualien County Government and the Hualien Harbor Bureau after the central government in 1993 planned to upgrade the Hualien Harbor into a multi-function fishing port.
Yu also promised to allocate NT$180 million for the second-phase expansion project of the Hualien Airport.
To help the county government turn the old railway station into an area consisting of a park, children's playground and parking lot, Yu pledged to subsidize NT$17 million for the NT$100 million project.
Yu also agreed to lend a 3.4-hectare brewery to the county government free of interest so that the county can turn it into a historic park.
The 72-year-old brew-house has been closed since 1988, when the facility was relocated to the Meiloon Industrial Park.
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