Illustrating the importance Taipei attaches to the potential for investment in the area, Liu has set aside over NT$100 million for future tourist development of the area.
According to Tsai San-lang (
He said both sides have come to the conclusion that it would be better to put aside boundary disputes and jointly explore the area for petroleum.
Rising demand for oil in China and Taiwan has pressed the issue and forced both sides to retreat from unbending territorial claims.
But handing control over the Pratas Islands development to Kaohsiung may also be a strategy for the central government to avoid tangling with Beijing, ever suspicious of moves in the South China Sea.
Significantly, this is the only major policy initiative of opposition DPP Kaohsiung Mayor Hsieh's administration that the central government has actively supported.
Hsieh, who has recently struggled for funding for Kaohsiung's planned MRT system, encountered little opposition when applying for a NT$29 million budget from the central government for Kaohsiung's Pratas Islands plans.
A military official last week acknowledged the project's strategic implications.
"Once the islands become a vacation point, any military conflict involving them will tend to become an international issue," the official said.
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