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Government southward relocation plan still on: Su

Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) yesterday said that the building of a new government office in Sinjhuang (新莊), Taipei County, would not affect the Cabinet's plan to relocate parts of government departments to the south.

"To erect a new office building in Sinjhuang is to build a new home for those government offices that do not have a place of their own at the moment. It is still our policy to relocate some government offices to southern Taiwan," Su said. "Whether we will relocate the capital, however, is not a decision the Cabinet is ready to make right now."

The premier made the remarks during yesterday morning's weekly Cabinet meeting.

He added that the Fisheries Agency would relocate to Kao-hsiung City within six months.

Aside from the agency, however, the government has yet to decide on other candidates for relocation, he said.

"Relocating government offices to the south will help balance the development of the country," Su said. "But we need to discuss this plan further."

"It is still our policy to relocate some government offices to southern Taiwan. Whether we will relocate the capital, however, is not a decision the Cabinet is ready to make right now."

Su Tseng-chang, premier

The premier said that 31 government offices do not own the buildings in which they are located, which has resulted in an aggregate NT$1 billion (US$30 million) in office rental annually.

"These are unnecessary expenses and this problem needs to be fixed," Su said. "We want to come up with the perfect plan to fix the problem."

The premier has been looking for locations where buildings could be built for those agencies that have been leasing office space, but has yet to decide how many buildings will be built.

"In addition to the Sinjhuang site, we need to discuss how many buildings need to be built and where to build them," he said. "We are working on that."
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