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Plans to relocate agencies run into bipartisan protest

Legislators from the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) on Wednesday strongly opposed a plan by the Executive Yuan to relocate the Sports Affairs Council (SAC) and the Fisheries Agency to Taipei.

In separate statements, DPP Legislator Kuan Bi-ling (管碧玲) and the KMT’s Huang Chao-shun (黃昭順) urged the government not to waste taxpayers’ money after so much was spent to move the headquarters of the two agencies from Taipei to Kaohsiung less than a year ago.

Both Kuan and Huang represent constituencies in Kaohsiung City.

The Fisheries Agency was relocated to Kaohsiung City on Oct. 30 last year and the SAC was moved there on Feb. 1 this year. The relocation was part of the former DPP government’s policy of narrowing the north-south gap.

The DPP lost power in the presidential election on March 22.

The KMT-led Cabinet recently asked the legislature to withdraw the amendment under which the Fisheries Agency was relocated to Kaohsiung.

Meanwhile, the council has organized two public hearings in Kaohsiung and Taipei over the past two days to assess the possibility of moving its offices back to Taipei.

Kuan criticized the moves, saying they were aimed at thoroughly overturning the former government’s policy.

The gap between the north and the south would remain, and the hopes of the people in the south for an injection of resources into that area would also be destroyed, she said.

Huang said that when the Fisheries Agency was moved to Kaohsiung last year, 118 agency personnel were also relocated.

Each of them is entitled to a monthly subsidy of NT$20,000 and other benefits because of the relocation, she said.

If the agency is moved back to Taipei, the huge amount of taxpayers’ money that the government spent on the relocation would have been wasted, she said.

Kaohsiung City Director of Information Shih Che (史哲) also urged President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) not to scrap the DPP policy but to pay attention to public opinion.

It was reasonable to base the two organizations in Kaohsiung as the city is one of the country’s main fishing areas and it also accommodates a national sports training center, Shih said.
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