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Kaohsiung mayor slams CLA move plan to Sinjhuang

"When Su visited southern Taiwan, he said the agencies would go south. When he was in Taipei, he said the agencies would go to Sinjhuang."

Wu Yu-sheng, KMT legislator

Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊) yesterday voiced her opposition to the Cabinet's plan to relocate the Council of Labor Affairs (CLA) to Sinjhuang (新莊), Taipei County.

While taking questions at the city council, Chen, a former CLA chairwoman, said she had been fighting for the relocation of the council to Kaohsiung City since 2000 in a bid to promote a more balanced regional development plan.

The council would be in a better position to solve problems if it were moved to Kaohsiung as 80 percent of its residents were workers, she said.

Chen said that she has communicated to Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) on many occasions the city government's wish that the council and the Fishery Agency, which falls under the Council of Agriculture Affairs, be relocated to Kaohsiung.

She said she would carry on the fight to persuade the Cabinet, adding that the city government could not disappoint Kaohsiung residents.

Chen's remarks came in the wake of comments by Su during a legislative session on Tuesday, when he said that the Cabinet would like to move some government agencies to Sinjhuang, adding that the Cabinet had evaluated the feasibility of establishing a second "Joint Central Government Office Building" there.

Minister of the Interior Lee Yi-yang (李逸洋) also said on Tuesday that the ministry had planned to move five agencies -- the CLA, the Department of Health, the Council of Hakka Affairs, the Council of Indigenous People and the Public Construction Commission -- to Sinjhuang.

The government has argued that the relocations will help stimulate regional development.

Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers yesterday requested that the government clarify its intention to move some government agencies to the south, as it had said in the past, or to Taipei County.

"When Su visited southern Taiwan, he said the agencies would go south. When he was in Taipei, he said the agencies would go to Sinjhuang. How are we supposed to believe the government?" KMT Legislator Wu Yu-sheng (吳育昇) said at a press conference.

"DPP lawmakers launched a petition calling for moving the nation's capital to central or southern Taiwan. Why would Premier Su now want to establish a second Joint Central Government Office Building in Sinjhuang?" KMT Legislator Ho Tsai-feng (侯彩鳳) asked.

The Taiwan Solidarity Union caucus yesterday also disapproved of the decision.
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