The government has drafted a special bill on a five-year, NT$500 billion stimulus plan aimed at propping up Taiwan's sustainable development, Vice Premier Lin Hsin-i (
"The Cabinet will refer the draft bill to the Legislative Yuan for deliberation before the end of this month," Lin said, adding that he hopes the legislature can approve the special bill as early as possible to facilitate the launch of 10 new major construction projects.
Once the bill clears the legislative floor, Lin said, the Cabinet will come up with a relevant budget bill which will detail how the government will raise funds for the new projects.
According to Lin, the 10 new construction projects will include building three artificial lakes, transforming the existing Taiwan railway into regional mass rapid transit (MRT) systems and constructing industrial parks along the high-speed railway, which is scheduled to become operational in 2005.
Also among the projects are the construction of nursing homes for the elderly, a national arts center in Kaohsiung, a third national theater in northern Taiwan, a Guggenheim museum branch in Taichung, pop-concert halls in various parts of the island, sewers, wind power generators, and new round-the-island highways.
The ambitious stimulus plan also includes upgrading Taiwan's university education system and holding a Taiwan Expo trade fair.
Lin said some of the projects, such as construction of wind power generators, elderly nursing homes, sewers and artificial lakes, will be carried out under a BOT (build-operate-transfer) formula in which private investors will be allowed to construct and operate the projects.
"We are hopeful that the government's NT$500 billion investment will attract another NT$500 billion from the private sector to beef up our overall economic strength," Lin said.
Because of changing economic climates at home and abroad, Lin said, the domestic investment rate has declined steadily over the past three years. Government investment in infrastructure construction has also decreased steadily, from NT$761.9 billion in 1999 to NT$635.5 billion in 2002.
In the face of sluggish domestic demand, Lin said, it is necessary for the country to raise the legal ceiling on public debt to increase public investments and help stimulate domestic demand.
Noting that the IMF has issued a warning that Taiwan may be gripped by deflation, Lin said the government must act quickly to stave off such an adverse scenario.
With Taiwan's population aging, Lin said, the government will encourage private investment in elderly caregiving services. For instance, he said, the Veterans Affairs Commission is expected to provide a piece of land in Ilan for construction of a nursing home for senior citizens.
In an effort to upgrade the quality of life, Lin said, the government will encourage private investments in sewer construction under a BOT formula.
Meanwhile, Lin said yesterday that the government is more than half way to achieving its goal of attracting NT$100 billion (US$2.96 billion) in foreign investment ahead of a investment-promotion conference in late October.
In an interview, Lin said that the government has already approved 107 foreign investment projects with a combined investment value of NT$66 billion (US$1.95 billion). The investment-promotion conference is scheduled for Oct. 19.
In addition, the government has won promises of foreign investment in another 73 projects, with a total investment of NT$71 billion (US$2.1 billion).
The Oct. 19 investment conference is quite different from similar gatherings in the past, because all of the participants are executives of prominent foreign companies with which Taiwan businessmen urgently want to cooperate, Lin said.
At the conference, the government will pitch the island's favorable investment environment in two summits of chief executives and 12 seminars, Lin went on.
In addition to attracting foreign investors, the conference is also designed to persuade Taiwan businessmen operating in China to make Taiwan the headquarters of their business operations.
Lin said the Executive Yuan sets great store in the opinions of Taiwan businessmen investing in China and seeks their advice on national policies regularly in its attempts to improve the local business environment.
As part of its efforts to attract these Taiwanese businessmen, the government is offering cheap land and rent, in addition to soft loans, Lin went on.
The government has budgeted NT$100 billion a year in soft loans for small- and medium-sized business, Lin noted.
In order to provide local companies with sufficient workforce, Lin said the Executive Yuan is trying to ease restrictions on women working at night and giving employers more leeway in arranging shifts for their workers.
Starlux Airlines, Taiwan’s newest international carrier, has announced it would apply to join the Oneworld global airline alliance before the end of next year. In an investor conference on Monday, Starlux Airlines chief executive officer Glenn Chai (翟健華) said joining the alliance would help it access Taiwan. Chai said that if accepted, Starlux would work with other airlines in the alliance on flight schedules, passenger transits and frequent flyer programs. The Oneworld alliance has 13 members, including American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Qantas, and serves more than 900 destinations in 170 territories. Joining Oneworld would also help boost
A new tropical storm formed late yesterday near Guam and is to approach closest to Taiwan on Thursday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Tropical Storm Pulasan became the 14th named storm of the year at 9:25pm yesterday, the agency said. As of 8am today, it was near Guam traveling northwest at 21kph, it said. The storm’s structure is relatively loose and conditions for strengthening are limited, WeatherRisk analyst Wu Sheng-yu (吳聖宇) said on Facebook. Its path is likely to be similar to Typhoon Bebinca, which passed north of Taiwan over Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and made landfall in Shanghai this morning, he said. However, it
Taiwan's Gold Apollo Co (金阿波羅通信) said today that the pagers used in detonations in Lebanon the day before were not made by it, but by a company called BAC which has a license to use its brand. At least nine people were killed and nearly 3,000 wounded when pagers used by Hezbollah members detonated simultaneously across Lebanon yesterday. Images of destroyed pagers analyzed by Reuters showed a format and stickers on the back that were consistent with pagers made by Gold Apollo. A senior Lebanese security source told Reuters that Hezbollah had ordered 5,000 pagers from Taiwan-based Gold Apollo. "The product was not
COLD FACTS: ‘Snow skin’ mooncakes, made with a glutinous rice skin and kept at a low temperature, have relatively few calories compared with other mooncakes Traditional mooncakes are a typical treat for many Taiwanese in the lead-up to the Mid-Autumn Festival, but a Taipei-based dietitian has urged people not to eat more than one per day and not to have them every day due to their high fat and calorie content. As mooncakes contain a lot of oil and sugar, they can have negative health effects on older people and those with diabetes, said Lai Yu-han (賴俞含), a dietitian at Taipei Hospital of the Ministry of Health and Welfare. “The maximum you can have is one mooncake a day, and do not eat them every day,” Lai