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921 reconstruction nearly complete, president boasts

President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) said yesterday that Taiwan had completed almost all of its reconstruction projects four years after a magnitude 7.3 earthquake wreaked havoc on the country on Sept. 21, 1999.

Chen made the remarks while meeting with Iowa Governor Thomas Vilsack, who arrived in Taipei over the weekend for a trade and cultural-exchange promotion visit.

Vilsack made his first visit to Taiwan as governor in September 1999. He was forced to shorten his visit because of the 921 earthquake.

Chen told Vilsack that there has been substantial progress in post-quake rehabilitation.

"We have rebuilt nearly 300 schools destroyed in the earthquake. Only three or four schools are still being rebuilt and reconstruction will be completed by the end of this year," he said.

The 921 quake killed nearly 2,400 people and left nearly 100,000 buildings and many bridges and highways toppled or partially damaged.

"Nowadays, such disastrous scenes no longer exist," Chen said. "Through concerted efforts of our government and people, we have reinvented ourselves from the earthquake rubble."

Last Saturday, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) released a survey which indicated that 86 percent of the people who moved into one of the prefabricated-housing complexes erected after the quake were not satisfied with the government's reconstruction work. The KMT said these residents would use their votes to show their dissatisfaction with the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).

The DPP, however, said that most quake victims had moved out of the complex, which means that the government has helped them to get the compensation they deserve. The DPP said that the KMT's survey was based on only a few people still living in the complex.

Only 212 out of 402 survey questionnaires were returned.
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