Kaohsiung candidates duke it out

Kaohsiung City's mayoral candidates are emphasizing economic growth and quality of life as they near the Dec. 7 elections.

For months, independent candidate Shih Ming-teh (施明德) has called on legislators to support a draft law that would turn Kaohsiung into a municipal port city of commerce and trade, which he believes would free the city from existing restrictions.

In one of his recent articles, Shih wrote: "Kaohsiung must be allowed to act independently, opening the door of direct links to unshackle Taiwanese investors from the sensibilities of both sides of the Strait."

To further highlight the law's relevance to residents, Shih posed this question last Thursday: "Where will NT$1.5 billion for Kaohsiung City to clean coastal pollution come from if a Taiwan-registered oil tanker at the harbor causes an oil spill similar to the recent one near Spain?"

The governments of Spain and Portugal are still salvaging the Panama-registered Greek ship, Prestige, which spilled more than 3,028,329 liters of fuel when its hull ruptured during a storm on Nov. 13 on its way to Singapore, prompting Spain to close some 96km of its coastline. Spain's government estimates that the cleanup of coastal pollution caused by the oil spill would be about NT$1.5 billion.

The oil spill issue is familiar to Kaohsiung residents, a harbor city where oil tankers come and go regularly. Past coastal and harbor pollution could be attributed to the leakage of pipes connecting oil tankers and storage tanks on land belonging to Chinese Petroleum Corporation or the acts of oil smugglers.

Shih said that Article 11 of the proposed law would allow Taiwan's oil tankers to register in Kaohsiung. If so, Taiwan's oil tankers will be accepted by reliable international insurance companies.

Shih said that because Taiwan's diplomatic status is vague, most oil tankers can only be covered by small insurance companies, which will only offer small amounts of compensation for such accidents, whereas the government would have to cover the costs of a salvage operation.

Shih stressed that both Hong Kong and Cheju, South Korea, allow ships to register.

"Kaohsiung, a harbor city, had better map out its projects to take care of both economic development and environmental protection," Shih said.

Last Saturday, the first in a series of televised debates was held by the Kaohsiung Election Committee.

During the debate, Shih said if Kaohsiung was a municipal port city, cross-strait problems pertaining to direct transportation would be solved because the proposed law would legalize the city's relations with Chinese ports.

"If 3 million tourists visiting China via Hong Kong each year change their flights in Kaohsiung, taxi drivers and hotel managers here would never worry about their businesses," Shih said.

Shih added that the law would result in more investment opportunities because businessmen would be exempt from paying customs duties.

During the debate, KMT candidate Huang Jun-ying (黃俊英) agreed with Shih on the idea of turning Kaohsiung into a municipal port city.

"The issue Kaohsiung residents care about most is economic development. Let's start direct cross-strait transportation here," Huang said.

In addition, Huang criticized Mayor Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) for his failure to solve problems pertaining to the high unemployment rate, worsening public security and the spread of dengue fever.