Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) said yesterday that a number of locations close to stations along the future MRT line to Taoyuan International Airport in Linkou Township (林口), Taipei County, have been selected by the Executive Yuan to build “affordable housing” for young people.
The Ministry of the Interior’s Construction and Planning Agency yesterday briefed Wu on the proposal at the Executive Yuan. Wu said he gave preliminarily approval for the proposal.
After the MRT system becomes operational, “the locations will be within a 20 to 25 minute journey from Taipei Railway Station,” Wu said in an interview with China Television Co yesterday.
He said that the affordable housing communities, which are expected to accommodate thousands of families, could be completed by 2014 when the line is ready.
The government estimates the average cost for acquiring the construction site would be NT$100,000 per ping (3.3m²), with housing prices at less than NT$200,000 per ping, the proposal said.
Wu said the central government would preside over construction projects surrounding the unnamed A7, A8, and A9 stations, while the Taoyuan County Government would be in charge of the areas near the stations between A10 and A16, which are located within the proposed Taoyuan Airport City.
Each area would include more than 100 hectares of land to build communities.
Expensive housing was the top complaint in an online and telephone survey recently conducted by the Research, Development and Evaluation Commission.
Wu said that building communities in the suburban areas of big cities was a way to counter expensive housing without intervening in the real estate market.
The project could also be applied to some locations close to stations along the future orbital line of the Taipei MRT system, he said.
A survey conducted by a private housing agency recently showed that property prices in Taipei averaged NT$433,000 per ping, up from NT$244,000 in December last year and NT$406,000 in May last year, while those in Taipei County rose to an average NT$211,000 per ping this month from NT$173,000 a year earlier and NT$198,000 in May last year.
Also See: Home buyers settling for less as prices keep rising
An increase in Taiwanese boats using China-made automatic identification systems (AIS) could confuse coast guards patrolling waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast and become a loophole in the national security system, sources familiar with the matter said yesterday. Taiwan ADIZ, a Facebook page created by enthusiasts who monitor Chinese military activities in airspace and waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast, on Saturday identified what seemed to be a Chinese cargo container ship near Penghu County. The Coast Guard Administration went to the location after receiving the tip and found that it was a Taiwanese yacht, which had a Chinese AIS installed. Similar instances had also
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
AMENDMENT: Contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau must be reported, and failure to comply could result in a prison sentence, the proposal stated The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) yesterday voted against a proposed bill by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers that would require elected officials to seek approval before visiting China. DPP Legislator Puma Shen’s (沈伯洋) proposed amendments to the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), stipulate that contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau should be reported, while failure to comply would be punishable by prison sentences of up to three years, alongside a fine of NT$10 million (US$309,041). Fifty-six voted with the TPP in opposition
VIGILANCE: The military is paying close attention to actions that might damage peace and stability in the region, the deputy minister of national defense said The People’s Republic of China (PRC) might consider initiating a hack on Taiwanese networks on May 20, the day of the inauguration ceremony of president-elect William Lai (賴清德), sources familiar with cross-strait issues said. While US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s statement of the US expectation “that all sides will conduct themselves with restraint and prudence in the period ahead” would prevent military actions by China, Beijing could still try to sabotage Taiwan’s inauguration ceremony, the source said. China might gain access to the video screens outside of the Presidential Office Building and display embarrassing messages from Beijing, such as congratulating Lai