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.
‘NON-RED’: Taiwan and Ireland should work together to foster a values-driven, democratic economic system, leveraging their complementary industries, Lai said President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday expressed hopes for closer ties between Taiwan and Ireland, and that both countries could collaborate to create a values-driven, democracy-centered economic system. He made the remarks while meeting with an Irish cross-party parliamentary delegation visiting Taiwan. The delegation, led by John McGuinness, deputy speaker of the Irish house of representatives, known as the Dail, includes Irish lawmakers Malcolm Byrne, Barry Ward, Ken O’Flynn and Teresa Costello. McGuinness, who chairs the Ireland-Taiwan Parliamentary Friendship Association, is a friend of Taiwan, and under his leadership, the association’s influence has grown over the past few years, Lai said. Ireland is
FINAL COUNTDOWN: About 50,000 attended a pro-recall rally yesterday, while the KMT and the TPP plan to rally against the recall votes today Democracy activists, together with arts and education representatives, yesterday organized a motorcade, while thousands gathered on Ketagalan Boulevard in Taipei in the evening in support of tomorrow’s recall votes. Recall votes for 24 Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers and suspended Hsinchu City mayor Ann Kao (高虹安) are to be held tomorrow, while recall votes for seven other KMT lawmakers are scheduled for Aug. 23. The afternoon motorcade was led by the Spring Breeze Culture and Arts Foundation, the Tyzen Hsiao Foundation and the Friends of Lee Teng-hui Association, and was joined by delegates from the Taiwan Statebuilding Party and the Taiwan Solidarity
An SOS message in a bottle has been found in Ireland that is believed to have come from the Taiwanese captain of fishing vessel Yong Yu Sing No. 18 (永裕興18號), who has been missing without a trace for over four years, along with nine Indonesian crew members. The vessel, registered to Suao (蘇澳), went missing near Hawaii on Dec. 30, 2020. The ship has since been recovered, but the 10 crew members have never been found. The captain, surnamed Lee (李), is believed to have signed the note with his name. A post appeared on Reddit on Tuesday after a man
A saleswoman, surnamed Chen (陳), earlier this month was handed an 18-month prison term for embezzling more than 2,000 pairs of shoes while working at a department store in Tainan. The Tainan District Court convicted Chen of embezzlement in a ruling on July 7, sentencing her to prison for illegally profiting NT$7.32 million (US$248,929) at the expense of her employer. Chen was also given the opportunity to reach a financial settlement, but she declined. Chen was responsible for the sales counter of Nike shoes at Tainan’s Shinkong Mitsukoshi Zhongshan branch, where she had been employed since October 2019. She had previously worked
RSS