The Executive Yuan yesterday approved a proposal to invest NT$18.4 billion (US$605.6 million) over four years in an urban renewal program that officials claim will boost the nation’s economic growth rate by 0.12 percent a year and create 40,000 jobs.
The Ministry of the Interior presented the proposal at the weekly Cabinet meeting, denying that the timing of the plan had anything to do with tomorrow’s special municipality elections.
During the meeting, Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) touted the program as a way to improve quality of life and to protect the environment.
The country has 3.02 million households living in buildings more than 30 years old and 700,000 families living in buildings built 20 to 29 years ago, officials said.
The policy will see the government provide incentives to residents of older buildings so they can rebuild or renovate their homes.
Rebuilding or renovating older buildings would spur private sector investment in the real-estate market, generating an output value of more than NT$7 trillion, the government estimates.
Construction and Planning Agency Director Yeh Shih-wen (葉世文) told a press conference after the Cabinet meeting that the program would create huge business opportunities not only for the construction industry, but also the furniture and interior design industries.
The ministry will also develop concrete measures to encourage eco-friendly and barrier-free buildings and enhance the anti-seismic capability of the buildings, Yeh said.
At a press conference later in the day, Deputy Minister of the Interior Chien Tai-lang (簡太郎) denied the announcement of the plan was aimed at improving the chances of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) candidates tomorrow.
“The government’s policymaking process is a continuous one that does not take elections into consideration,” Chien said.
“We didn’t begin to research this policy over the past few days, we’ve worked on it for a long time,” Chien said. “It’s just coincidental that we’ve completed it in these past few days.”
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY LOA IOK-SIN
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