Premier Yu Shyi-kun said yesterday that the Cabinet will do everything possible to carry out the ideal of making Taipei and Kaohsiung twin centers of Taiwan.
The premier made the remarks while attending a ground-breaking ceremony for a section of the mass rapid transit (MRT) system in the greater Kaohsiung area.
The premier noted that President Chen Shui-bian (
"Taipei is developing rapidly and Kaohsiung must catch up," the premier said, noting that the Council for Economic Planning and Development is now planning for Kaohsiung to address grievances that the government is focusing on the northern part of Taiwan while overlooking the south.
"A balanced development of the southern and northern parts of Taiwan will be the implementation of President Chen's concept," he said.
On Kaohsiung County's application to extend one of the two rapid transit lines to the Luchu Science-based Industrial Park in Kaohsiung County, and Pingtung County's suggestion that another line be extended to its county, he said that although the 42km rapid transit line will be completed in 2007, the extensions will be taken into consideration in its long-term plan.
The premier said that he had asked the Ministry of Transportation and Communications to work out an initial plan, and will send it to the Cabinet-level Council for Economic Planning and Development for further discussion.
Yu noted that Chen promised in 2000 to spend NT$15 billion to solve the drinking-water problem in Kaohsiung, and that after more than two years, the tap-water purification plant is nearly complete.
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