Premier Yu Shyi-kun yesterday pledged to relocate the Shui-nan Airport in Taichung County and upgrade it to an international airport by 2006 in an effort to realize President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) promise to promote development in central Taiwan.
"The transportation ministry has been drawing up the relocation plan for a three-stage undertaking in a bid to put the president's campaign promise ... into practice," Yu told the plenary legislative session yesterday.
Yu made the statement in response to a question from KMT Legislator Lin Chin-chun (林進春) on the progress of the relocation plan.
Chen promised Taichung residents in the run-up to the presidential election in 2000 that he would turn the Shui-nan Airport into the nation's third international airport.
He also pledged to integrate Taichung City and Taichung County into a single constituency and upgrade its administrative status to be on par with that of the nation's two other special municipalities, Taipei and Kaohsiung cities.
The Constitution places special municipalities one level higher than local governments on the three-tiered government system.
Chen also promised the establishment of a science-based industrial park in central Taiwan, making it the third of its kind in the nation after the Hsinchu and Tainan parks.
According to Minister of Transportation and Communications Lin Ling-san (
The ministry first plans to move the airport to the nearby former military air base of Chingchuankang by the end of next year. For the first two years, the airport will be used as a domestic facility and gradually expanded into an international airport by 2006.
Meanwhile, Yu called on China to resume cross-strait dialogue as soon as possible to facilitate the opening of direct transportation across the Taiwan Strait.
"We're ready to sit at the negotiating table to talk with our Chinese counterparts," he said. "There's no bottom line regarding the time, issue and place as long as the negotiations are conducted under the principles of sovereignty, equality and dignity."
Although opening direct transportation links is one of Chen 's election promises, Yu said that direct links are not an elixir for Taiwan's flagging economy and that the government has not set a timetable for realizing the pledge.
"The opening of direct transportation links has to be achieved via talks and negotiations," Yu said. "We have to tackle the matter very carefully because it's not beneficial to every industry."
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