In a bid to revive the local economy hit by the SARS outbreak, the Executive Yuan yesterday decided to borrow NT$300 billion over the next three years to help boost the economic growth rate by 1 percent every year.
"We are thinking of spending about NT$100 million each year on large-scale public construction projects and building work." said Cabinet Spokesman Lin Chia-lung (
A special law has to be enacted before we are legally authorized to make such special budget requests from the legislature."
Given the poor condition of the economic climate, Lin said, the Cabinet hopes to propose the draft bill to the legislature in September when it reconvenes for its next session.
To raise more funds, Lin said the government hopes the private sector will follow suit and invest the same amount of money for three consecutive years.
"Together, we hope to see the nation's GDP increase by 1 percent on a yearly basis," Lin said.
Lin made the remarks yesterday afternoon after a five-and-a-half-hour closed-door meeting presided over by Premier Yu Shyi-kun in the Executive Yuan to discuss the impact of SARS on the local economy.
According to Lin, this year's economic growth rate may drop by 0.78 percent due to the SARS outbreak.
The government had previously projected this year's GDP at 3.68 percent. The figure, however, may drop to 2.89 percent because of the SARS outbreak.
The funds raised from the government and the private sector would be used to fund large-scale public construction projects deemed urgent in the six-year, NT$2.6 trillion national development project.
In the meantime, the Cabinet will make good use of the NT$50 billion SARS Prevention and Relief fund and launch the NT$57.7 billion public construction project and the NT$20 billion public service project, Lin said.
As the tourism industry is one of the sectors hardest hit by the SARS outbreak, Lin said, various promotion packages will kick off tomorrow to help boost the local tourism industry, Lin said.
They include the "buy one get one free" airplane ticket program offered by the nation's four domestic airlines, which will run between Wednesday and next Tuesday. The "NT$888 for two" preferential airplane ticket package will run from next Tuesday to the end of the month.
Visitors can also take advantage of the "999 program," in which about 70 of the nation's hotels will provide 999 rooms at the price of NT$999 a night.
In July, the tourism bureau will offer free trips to travel agents from Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia to see for themselves that it is safe to travel here. Tourists and media from the four countries are also invited.
Starting in August, the bureau will visit the US and other countries to promote the nation's tourism industry.
The Cabinet had originally set the goal of seeing 2.8 million foreign tourists visiting Taiwan this year.
The tourism bureau yesterday proposed to cut the number to 1.8 million because of the SARS outbreak. The proposal, however, was vetoed by Yu.
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