Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) yesterday asked the Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC) to start planning for the establishment of a free trade zone in Kaohsiung that connects Kaohsiung Port with Kaohsiung International Airport.
Wu gave the instruction when he visited the MOTC and after being briefed by Minister Mao Chi-kuo (毛治國).
MOTC Deputy Minister Yeh Kuang-shih (葉匡時) said in a press conference after the briefing that Kaohsiung Port was building its sixth terminal.
To expand Kaohsiung Port’s land, Yeh said the ministry was planning to construct an expressway that would connect Kaohsiung Port to Freeway No. 10, which begins in Zuoying (左營) and ends in Cishan (旗山)Kaohsiung County.
“The government will have to use some farmland to build the expressway,” Yeh said. “We estimate that this will help expand the [port’s] area by approximately 200 hectares.”
Yeh said the property expansion would help turn Kaohsiung Port into a hub for value adding, where manufacturers reprocess goods to turn them into more valuable products.
Yeh also said Kaohsiung City Government was planning to expand Kaohsiung International Airport through a land reclamation project.
“The city is considering allowing the Kaohsiung Harbor Bureau to manage the reclaimed land, provided that it acquires some of the bureau’s properties for the city’s development, which will require further negotiations,” he said.
The ministry, however, has not set a specific timeline as to when construction of the expressway would begin, he said.
Meanwhile, the ministry said in its briefing to Wu that it was working with the Ministry of Economic Affairs to start replacing all gasoline-powered motorcycles on the nation’s island communities with electric motorcycles.
Yeh said the measure was proposed in conjunction with the nation’s policy to conserve energy to curb carbon dioxide emissions. The measure, if enacted, will apply to all islands, including Green Island (綠島), Lanyu (蘭嶼) and Liouciou (小琉球), he said.
“At this stage, we aim to use the electric motorcycles to develop eco-tourism in outlying islands,” Yeh said. “We have not talked about when the policy will apply to motorcyclists on Taiwan proper.”
When asked about the possibility of switching to electric cars, Yeh said the technology had not developed enough and the government could have problems implementing such a policy. The government may consider giving motorcycle owners incentives to switch, he said.
In addition to the policies on the free trade zone in Kaohsiung and electric motorcycles, Wu asked the ministry to complete a double-track rail system on the East Coast.
The MOTC should also respond to the needs of East Coast residents by constructing an alternative route to the highway that connects Suao (蘇澳) and Hualien, Wu said.
Wu on Tuesday said the Executive Yuan would complete a feasibility study on constructing an alternative to the mountain section of the controversial Suhua freeway.
The disputed Suhua freeway was proposed more than a decade ago to connect Yilan and Hualien counties.
AGING: While Japan has 22 submarines, Taiwan only operates four, two of which were commissioned by the US in 1945 and 1946, and transferred to Taiwan in 1973 Taiwan would need at least 12 submarines to reach modern fleet capabilities, CSBC Corp, Taiwan chairman Chen Cheng-hung (陳政宏) said in an interview broadcast on Friday, citing a US assessment. CSBC is testing the nation’s first indigenous defense submarine, the Hai Kun (海鯤, Narwhal), which is scheduled to be delivered to the navy next month or in July. The Hai Kun has completed torpedo-firing tests and is scheduled to undergo overnight sea trials, Chen said on an SET TV military affairs program. Taiwan would require at least 12 submarines to establish a modern submarine force after assessing the nation’s operational environment and defense
A white king snake that frightened passengers and caused a stir on a Taipei MRT train on Friday evening has been claimed by its owner, who would be fined, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC) said yesterday. A person on Threads posted that he thought he was lucky to find an empty row of seats on Friday after boarding a train on the Bannan (Blue) Line, only to spot a white snake with black stripes after sitting down. Startled, he jumped up, he wrote, describing the encounter as “terrifying.” “Taipei’s rat control plan: Release snakes on the metro,” one person wrote in reply, referring
The coast guard today said that it had disrupted "illegal" operations by a Chinese research ship in waters close to the nation and driven it away, part of what Taipei sees a provocative pattern of China's stepped up maritime activities. The coast guard said that it on Thursday last week detected the Chinese ship Tongji (同濟號), which was commissioned only last year, 29 nautical miles (54km) southeast of the southern tip of Taiwan, although just outside restricted waters. The ship was observed lowering ropes into the water, suspected to be the deployment of scientific instruments for "illegal" survey operations, and the coast
An inauguration ceremony was held yesterday for the Danjiang Bridge, the world’s longest single-mast asymmetric cable-stayed bridge, ahead of its official opening to traffic on Tuesday, marking a major milestone after nearly three decades of planning and construction. At the ceremony in New Taipei City attended by President William Lai (賴清德), Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰), Minister of Transportation and Communications Chen Shih-kai (陳世凱) and New Taipei City Mayor Hou Yu-ih (侯友宜), the bridge was hailed as both an engineering landmark and a long-awaited regional transport link connecting Tamsui (淡水) and Bali (八里)
RSS