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President looks over site of Taichung airport

President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) visited Taichung City yesterday with Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) for a briefing from the city government on plans to develop the vast plot of land where the old Shuinan Airport once stood.

The development project, formed after the airport facilities were relocated to the Chingchuankang Airport (清泉崗機場) in March 2004, leaving approximately 250 hectares of vacant land, drew Chen's attention after Richard Li (李澤楷), a Hong Kong business tycoon whose father is Asia's richest man, Li Ka-shing (李嘉誠), appeared interested in the project during a visit to the site last month.

Talking about the project, Tai-chung Mayor Jason Hu (胡志強) said work on the project has long been put off because of the problem of covering the cost of at least NT$7 billion (US$211.64 million) it would take to relocate the Air Force second logistic command center from the site of the former airport.

Shuinan Airport (水湳機場) was built as a military airport during the Japanese colonial period. It was taken over after the end of World War II by the Air Force, which established the logistic command center and an aviation industrial development center at the site.

Until 1980, all aircraft produced in Taiwan were manufactured and underwent testing at the airport, according to the city government. As Taichung expanded, the airport gradually shifted from the city's outskirts to its center. It is now situated near the Central Taiwan Science Park, Fengchia University and the Aerospace Industrial Development Corp, which designed and built Taiwan's Indigenous Defense Fighters.

As the airport's existence was often blamed for hindering the city's land transport and urban development, the city government launched efforts in 2004 to develop the place into a modern urban center that has been planned to house a university city, a trading exhibition center, an exclusive residential district and a forest park.

After the briefing, Hu quoted Chen as saying that the central government would do something to address the problems that have hindered the project.
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