The Ministry of Transportation and Communications said yesterday it was planning to establish a Harbor Affairs Bureau by 2011 to supervise the operations of all the nation’s ports.
Deputy Minister of Transportation and Communications Yeh Kuang-shih (葉匡時) told a briefing at the legislature’s Transportation Committee that the ministry was also planning to enhance the competitiveness of the nation’s international seaports by turning them into commercial port corporations.
CARGO
“We will also take advantage of the opportunity brought by direct cross-strait sea transportation and enhance our ties to some of the second-tier inland river ports in China,” Yeh said. “We hope this will help increase the amount of cargo transferred via Taiwan.”
The ministry’s Aviation and Navigation Department currently supervises the operations of the nation’s international commercial seaports, including Keelung Port, Taichung Port, Kaohsiung Port and Hualien Port.
Taipei Port is managed by Keelung Harbor Bureau.
Kaohsiung Port, the nation’s largest, fell out of the top 10 global ranking in terms of container cargo handled last year.
The lackluster performance of Kaohsiung Port was the focus of the question-and-answer session at the legislative meeting yesterday, which was scheduled to review the port’s operational budget.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Yang Jen-fu (楊仁福) said the nation had not benefited from direct transportation services. Instead cargo delivered via Taiwan had gradually dwindled, he said.
Yeh attributed the drop in Kaohsiung’s ranking to the global economic downturn, shrinking domestic demand and relocation of the nation’s manufacturers to China.
VALUE
“The nation should focus on increasing the value of goods delivered via Taiwan, rather than just raising cargo volume,” Yeh said.
Both KMT and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers opposed the ministry’s budget plan for the next fiscal year, which seeks to transfer NT$8 billion in seaport construction funding to the treasury.
Yeh said the ministry was indeed short of funds for construction work at Kaohsiung Port, adding that the Executive Yuan may have other considerations on budget allocation.
“We will respect the committee’s decision if it insists we keep the fund,” he said.
A year-long renovation of Taipei’s Bangka Park (艋舺公園) began yesterday, as city workers fenced off the site and cleared out belongings left by homeless residents who had been living there. Despite protests from displaced residents, a city official defended the government’s relocation efforts, saying transitional housing has been offered. The renovation of the park in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), near Longshan Temple (龍山寺), began at 9am yesterday, as about 20 homeless people packed their belongings and left after being asked to move by city personnel. Among them was a 90-year-old woman surnamed Wang (王), who last week said that she had no plans
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.
‘SPEY’ REACTION: Beijing said its Eastern Theater Command ‘organized troops to monitor and guard the entire process’ of a Taiwan Strait transit China sent 74 warplanes toward Taiwan between late Thursday and early yesterday, 61 of which crossed the median line in the Taiwan Strait. It was not clear why so many planes were scrambled, said the Ministry of National Defense, which tabulated the flights. The aircraft were sent in two separate tranches, the ministry said. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday “confirmed and welcomed” a transit by the British Royal Navy’s HMS Spey, a River-class offshore patrol vessel, through the Taiwan Strait a day earlier. The ship’s transit “once again [reaffirmed the Strait’s] status as international waters,” the foreign ministry said. “Such transits by