Independent Taipei mayor-elect Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) yesterday triggered controversy when he said after a meeting with Yilan County Commissioner Lin Tsung-hsien (林聰賢) that a planned rail line connecting Taipei and Yilan should take the shortest route possible to save time, even though the that plan had been rejected over ecological and environmental concerns.
“Commissioner Lin and I touched on the issue of the planned new rail line between Taipei and Yilan during the meeting, and we both agreed that the rail line should take the shorter route,” Ko said after the hour-long talks at Yilan County Hall yesterday morning.
“Of course, environmental impacts are an issue, but we will leave them to be solved by the professionals,” he added.
Photo: Chen Chih-chu, Taipei Times
Ko added that if the environmental issues could be solved, then the shorter route should be chosen.
The shorter route — or “route A”— was an option when the government earlier considered constructing a direct line between Taipei and Yilan to solve traffic problems.
However, since route A would pass through an ecologically sensitive area near the Fetsui Reservoir (翡翠水庫) that supplies water to Taipei and part of New Taipei City, it was rejected.
Photo: CNA
Instead, “route B” — a curved path avoiding the area — was chosen. Route B would add 14 minutes to the trip.
Elaborating on the issue later in Taipei, Ko said that he and Lin prefer route A because of the time it could save.
“The public’s time should be an important factor to consider,” Ko said. “If route A could save 14 minutes for a traveler, and if there are 10,000 travelers taking the train a day, you would be surprised to see how much time is saved.”
He said that the route chosen by the central government was “dodging the environmental issue.”
“We should look for a way to succeed, not excuses for failure,” Ko said. “The decision [to take route B] is dodging the environmental issue; we should first try to see if the environmental issues could be solved. If they can, then we should of course choose route A. If they cannot, then we would go to route B.”
When asked whether he would accept route B if he finds that the environmental issues cannot be solved, Ko said: “We should try very hard to see if we can find a solution when we run into a problem.”
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