The Cabinet yesterday approved an amendment to the Renovation Regulations (都市更新條例) to simplify the procedures for urban renewal plans.
Under the amendment, the number of days required for an urban renewal plan to be put on public display in local township offices before it is sent to government regulatory agencies for approval will be shortened from 30 days to 15 days.
The amendment also stipulates that groups or institutions that undertake urban renewal as well as landowners should share compensation payouts for affected parties and any other expenses to transfer development rights. Landowners can transfer the right to develop one parcel of land to another parcel.
Currently, the division of expenses between operators and landowners is decided in negotiations and often leads to disputes.
The Cabinet meeting also approved an amendment to the Deeds Tax Statute (契稅條例) that would base the tax incurred when buying real estate on a local commission appraisal and not market value.
The amendment would increase the incentive for foreign businesses to invest in real estate, the Ministry of Finance said.
Meanwhile, Executive Yuan Spokesman Su Jun-pin (蘇俊賓) quoted Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) as saying that government agencies should consider land reclamation projects to accommodate industrial parks.
As climate change could eventually cause food shortages, the nation should stop converting farmland into industrial parks, Su said.
Council of National Science Minister Lee Lou-chuang (李羅權) yesterday presented a briefing on the country’s science parks, saying that the number of employees on unpaid leave had decreased from 132,414 in January to 1,032 this month.
In related news, Central Taiwan Science Park (CTSP, 中部科學園區) Administration Director-General Yang Wen-ke (楊文科) yesterday said the science park’s Erlin (二林) Site — its fourth phase of expansion — located in Changhua County, is expected to create 30,000 jobs and generate NT$920 billion (US$28.4 billion) in turnover annually once it is fully operational.
Ground-breaking at Erlin, which will mainly house a cluster of optoelectronics makers, is scheduled for Dec. 25.
The Erlin Park, situated on an area of 350 hectares — equivalent to the area of the Hsinchu Science Park (新竹科學園區), the nation’s biggest science park — will be home to AU Optronics’ 10th-generation thin-film-transistor liquid-crystal-display (TFT-LCD) manufacturing facilities, Yang said. AU Optronics is one of the nation’s top TFT-LCD manufacturers.
“Currently, worldwide, only Sony and Sharp have opened such plants, in Japan, while South Korea’s Samsung is planning to build one,” Yang said.
Yang said the Erlin Park would eventually be a high-tech production chain integrating the upstream, midstream and downstream sections of the optoelectronics industry, along with satellite industries including the semiconductor, precision machinery, biotechnology and renewable energy sectors.
Meanwhile, Yang said Jhongsing New Village (中興新村) in Nantou County, once the seat of the Taiwan Provincial Government, would be transformed into a high-level research park within 10 years.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY CNA
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