Plans to turn the Grand Hotel in Taipei into a private corporation have nothing to do with the March 22 presidential election, Minister of Transportation and Communications Tsai Duei (蔡堆) said yesterday.
Tsai made the comments after the Chinese-language China Times yesterday reported that the Duen Mou Foundation of Taiwan is planning to invest NT$900 million (US$29.1 million) to transform the hotel into a company before the new president takes office in May, with the newly formed company to be managed by board chairman Christine Tsung (
The hotel currently falls under the supervisory authority of the Ministry of Transportation and Telecommunications, with four ministry officials serving as board members.
The Duen Mou Foundation is a non-profit organization that was founded by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) in 1952 and now falls under the ministry's jurisdiction.
"The ministry does not have any agenda [on when it will become a company]," Tsai said yesterday.
"Having been a civil servant for 30 years, I can tell you from experience that it would be impossible for the hotel to become a company by May 20," he said.
Tsai said that, based on government regulations, all hotels should be operated as companies, and that the Grand Hotel should become a company if it is planning to diversify its operations.
To do so, however, the hotel must handle several issues, such as the interests of its employees, which could not possibly be settled in just a day or two, he said.
The Grand Hotel Taipei -- built on the orders of dictator Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) and former first lady Soong Mayling (宋美齡) in the 1950s with public funds, on public land and without having to pay tax -- is a Taipei landmark and former venue for state banquets.
Describing the matter as an "issue left behind by history," Premier Chang Chun-hsiung (張俊雄), when approached for comment outside the legislature yesterday, said the Executive Yuan was unsure whether any change could be carried out prior to May 20.
Chang said that establishing a company to manage the Grand Hotel would help boost the hotel's development.
When asked if the government would be able to maintain control of the company, Chang said the hotel would be run by a judicial person instead of by a corporate system.
The Tourism Bureau said in a statement yesterday that the Executive Yuan had decided to turn the Grand Hotel into a company in 2006. However, preparations for the move had already started in 1999, when the late chairman Koo Chen-fu (辜振甫) presided over the hotel's operations. The hotel's ownership remained an unresolved issue after Koo passed away in Jan. 2005.
The bureau puts the net value of the Grand Hotel's assets at NT$3.37 billion.
Earlier yesterday, the KMT caucus threatened to sue government officials involved in the plan to establish the company.
KMT caucus whip Alex Fai (
"The future of the Grand Hotel cannot be determined until the ministry presents a comprehensive plan to the legislature for approval," KMT Legislator Chang Hsien-yao (張顯耀) said at the media conference held by Fai.
KMT legislators Hsieh Kuo-liang (
Additional reporting by Flora Wang and CNA
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