The massive landslide on the Formosa Freeway (National Freeway No. 3) that killed at least four people has brought home the urgency of passing a geological bill, as lawmakers across party lines yesterday voiced support for the draft act that would allow the government to survey and publish data about geologically sensitive areas nationwide.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus secretary-general Lin Hung-chih (林鴻池) told a press conference that the legislature would speed up the process to pass the draft geology act as soon as possible.
The legislature’s Gazette showed that the legislature passed the Geology Act (地質法) on Jan. 6, 2004, but 42 KMT and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators, including then-KMT legislator Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) and then-DPP legislator Chiu Tai-san (邱太三), proposed one week later that the legislature reconsider the act.
The 42 legislators said regulations in the act might overlap those in other laws, such as the Construction Act (建築法) and the Land Preservation Act (水土保持法), and could inconvenience the public because owners of farmland would also be required to submit a geological survey and safety evaluation report to build farmhouses on the land.
The legislature later agreed to reconsider the act and the piece of legislation has been sitting in the legislature ever since.
Lin said that in light of the landslide on Sunday, however, passing the bill was a high priority.
The Executive Yuan passed the latest version of the draft proposal on Feb. 20 and referred the bill to the legislature for review.
The proposal, if passed, would allow the government to designate certain regions as “geologically sensitive areas” and require all developers to conduct geological surveys and safety assessments before proceeding with construction.
The draft would also allow the government to establish a national geological survey mechanism and require that the government update relevant information.
“Every piece of geological information should be considered national property. We hope to manage the data [at the central government] and allow everyone to use the data [by following due procedure],” Central Geological Survey Director-General Tsao Shu-chung (曹恕中) told the conference.
Lin also asked the government to make a thorough assessment of dip slopes — geological formations often created by the erosion of tilted strata — on national, provincial and county roads and residential areas.
Tsao said that for large-scale sensitive areas, the government could install strain measuring instruments to monitor land changes and take preventive measures. For small-scale sensitive areas, the government could reinforce existing structures.
Installation of the devices, however, would have to take cost into consideration, Tsai said.
Also pledging its support for the proposed bill, the DPP caucus said it hoped cross-party consensus could speed up the process, adding that such a consensus would be needed to prevent prominent developers from attempting to influence the proposed act.
Sunday’s tragedy exemplified the need to finish negotiations quickly, DPP Legislator Yeh Yi-jin (葉宜津) said.
Meanwhile, the Taipei City Government said 30 out of the city’s 135 listed residential communities on slopes were near dip slopes. Officials urged the public to check the Internet for related information.
The Ministry of the Interior's Construction and Planning Agency said there should be a law on the publication of related information, but conceded it would trigger controversy as it would include private property.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY VINCENT Y. CHAO AND CNA
CREDIT-GRABBER: China said its coast guard rescued the crew of a fishing vessel that caught fire, who were actually rescued by a nearby Taiwanese boat and the CGA Maritime search and rescue operations do not have borders, and China should not use a shipwreck to infringe upon Taiwanese sovereignty, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said yesterday. The coast guard made the statement in response to the China Coast Guard (CCG) saying it saved a Taiwanese fishing boat. The Chuan Yu No. 6 (全漁6號), a fishing vessel registered in Keelung, on Thursday caught fire and sank in waters northeast of Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台). The vessel left Keelung’s Badouzih Fishing Harbor (八斗子漁港) at 3:35pm on Sunday last week, with seven people on board — a 62-year-old Taiwanese captain surnamed Chang (張) and six
RISKY BUSINESS: The ‘incentives’ include initiatives that get suspended for no reason, creating uncertainty and resulting in considerable losses for Taiwanese, the MAC said China’s “incentives” failed to sway sentiment in Taiwan, as willingness to work in China hit a record low of 1.6 percent, a Ministry of Labor survey showed. The Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) also reported that the number of Taiwanese workers in China has nearly halved from a peak of 430,000 in 2012 to an estimated 231,000 in 2024. That marked a new low in the proportion of Taiwanese going abroad to work. The ministry’s annual survey on “Labor Life and Employment Status” includes questions respondents’ willingness to seek employment overseas. Willingness to work in China has steadily declined from
The Legislative Yuan’s Finance Committee yesterday approved proposed amendments to the Amusement Tax Act (娛樂稅法) that would abolish taxes on films, cultural activities and competitive sporting events, retaining the fee only for dance halls and golf courses. The proposed changes would set the maximum tax rate for dance halls and golf courses at 50 and 20 percent respectively, with local governments authorized to suspend the levies. Article 2 of the act says that “amusement tax shall be levied on tickets sold or fees charged by amusement places, facilities or activities” in six categories: “Cinema; professional singing, story-telling, dancing, circus, magic show, acrobatics
INFLATION UP? The IMF said CPI would increase to 1.5 percent this year, while the DGBAS projected it would rise to 1.68 percent, with GDP per capita of US$44,181 The IMF projected Taiwan’s real GDP would grow 5.2 percent this year, up from its 2.1 percent outlook in January, despite fears of global economic disruptions sparked by the US-Iran conflict. Taiwan’s consumer price index (CPI) is projected to increase to 1.5 percent, while unemployment would be 3.4 percent, roughly in line with estimates for Asia as a whole, the international body wrote in its Global Economic Outlook Report published in the US on Monday. The figures are comparatively better than the IMF outlook for the rest of the world, which pegged real GDP growth at 3.1 percent, down from 3.3 percent
RSS