Taipei City unveils plan for recovery

Premier Yu Shyi-kun and Academia Sinica President Lee Yuan-tseh strike a gong yesterday to launch a 10-day temperature-taking campaign designed to combat SARS. PHOTO: SEAN CHAO, TAIPEI TIMES

The Taipei City Government announced a six-point plan yesterday to help revive an economy hit hard by the spread of SARS.

Under the plan, the city will offer discounts on rent, allow housing taxes to be paid in installments and fast-track loans to laborers and small and medium-sized businesses. It also calls for holding weekend promotional activities, a reduction in fees at city-owned facilities and new government spending.

"Those who have leased city-owned properties and suffered great losses because of SARS could get a 50 percent reduction in rent for three months, from April 1 to June 30," Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said yesterday.

Those who had been affected by the infectious disease could be allowed to postpone their annual house and building tax payments, Ma said. They could also apply to make the payments in instalments, he said, although the deadline for applications is today.

The city government said it will also negotiate with TaipeiBank and the credit units of grass-roots financial associations to provide preferential loans to individuals as well as small and medium-sized businesses battered by the outbreak.

The city's district offices will also host promotional activities during the weekend to help stimulate the economy.

Meanwhile the city government will encourage organizations and groups to hold activities at city-owned locations by reducing fees for the facilities.

Government spending originally planned after this month might also be sped up to spur the economy.

Taipei City Bureau of Finance Director Lee Sush-der (李述德) said the measures are part of the city's Post-SARS Recovery Project.

"The project is based on three targets. The first is following the central government's related regulations for relieving assorted losses caused by SARS. The second is using the resources available to the city government to stimulate the economy, while the third is accelerating important public infrastructure construction." Lee said.

In the past few days, Ma has been encouraging the public to return to a normal way of life, albeit while remaining on alert, hoping that crowds will start spending again.

The plan is the first step in the city's work to recover in the wake of SARS.

The city government has turned its SARS Response Center into the SARS Prevention and Recovery Committee. The committee consists of hospital, community, care and recuperation teams.

The hospital team is in charge of monitoring and controlling in-hospital infection, the community team is responsible for screening possible SARS patients within communities, the care team focuses on giving mental support to recovered SARS patients and those who have gone through home quarantine, and the recuperation team is working to boost the economy.

Meanwhile, the city announced that it had invited a US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (USCDC) consultant, Dr. Clarence James Peters, to study and offer advice on the epidemic control work in Taipei. Peters is scheduled to arrive tomorrow.

Peters, an epidemiologist, is well known for his work on the Ebola virus, especially the containment of the virus in the state of Virginia. He is also a colonel specializing in biological warfare defense with the US army, the city government said.

Peters is a former chief of pathogens at the USCDC and was once the chief of the Disease Assessment Division at the US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases.

He is now a professor at the University of Texas Medical Branch.

As of yesterday, there were a total of 680 probable SARS cases in the country, five more than the previous day. The death toll was unchanged at 81.