The Tourism Bureau plans to spend about NT$800 million (US$25 million) in the next three years on eco-tourism in Green Island (綠島) and Siaoliouciou (小琉球).
Chang Shi-chung (張錫聰), director of the Tourism Bureau’s technical division, said the bureau is aiming to replace about 14,600 regular scooters on the two islands with electric scooters by 2013.
“We hope that the policy will help reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 2,000 tonnes,” he said.
The four-year plan was designed to comply with President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) energy conservation and carbon emissions reduction policy. To execute the policy, the Council of Economic Planning and Development hosted a cross-departmental meeting at the beginning of this year to determine the division of labor.
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications was charged with carrying out the eco-tourism projects on Green Island and Siaoliouciou, two of the nation’s outlying islands. Green Island is in Taitung County, while Siaoliouciou is in Pingtung County.
Ministry statistics show that Green Island has a population of 3,199, but the island has 3,580 registered scooters. While Siaoliouciou has about 6,500 residents, the number of registered scooters has topped 11,000.
When asked to explain the discrepancies, Chang said it was likely that residents had not canceled the registrations for their unused scooters.
Meanwhile, the two islands also have about 1,000 scooters that are available for rent by visitors, he said. Chang said the replacement of regular scooters is scheduled to be completed by 2013, adding that the bureau aims to replace 1,460 scooters by the end of next year.
In addition to replacing all regular scooters on the two islands, the ministry will install public chargers for electric scooters, he said, adding that the ministry would help establish electric-powered bus services on both islands and stipulate traffic rules to regulate the operation of electric-powered vehicles.
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