While a number of lawmakers believe that moving the capital to the south could lead to the country developing in a more balanced manner, the Ministry of the Interior showed much less enthusiasm for the idea during a legislative meeting yesterday.
At the request of the Internal Administration Committee, Minister of the Interior Lee Hong-yuan (李鴻源) made a presentation on whether moving central government agencies to central or southern Taiwan would help to develop those regions.
In his presentation, Lee said the government has invested too many resources in northern Taiwan — notably the Taipei metropolitan area, which includes Taipei City and New Taipei City (新北市).
However, in his assessment of the German and Brazilian experiences when they moved their capitals, he said: “Moving the capital city has a huge impact on many aspects of a country. However, it would not necessarily help to bring balanced regional economic development.”
“We can also see that although the seat of the US federal government is in Washington, New York City is economically better developed than the Washington area, and placing the Australian capital in Canberra doesn’t make Canberra more developed than Sydney or Melbourne,” he said.
“We may try to balance development through other measures, such as region-centric development projects and an improved transportation network,” he added.
Lee’s remarks drew criticism from lawmakers from central and southern Taiwan, and across party lines.
“Taipei is overcrowded because not only is it the capital, but also the financial and high-tech hub of Taiwan,” said Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Johnny Chiang (江啟臣), who represents an electoral district in Greater Taichung. “With everything concentrated in Taipei, of course it’s not possible for the government to divert more resources to central and southern Taiwan.”
“You mentioned a better transportation network. Well, what happened after the high-speed rail was inaugurated was that more people chose to live in Taipei to enjoy the convenient lifestyle here, while taking one-day trips down south via the high-speed rail for business,” he added.
KMT Legislator Chi Kuo-tung (紀國棟), also representing Greater Taichung, echoed Chiang’s sentiments.
“If the government is trying to persuade more young people to live outside Taipei, then why can’t the government take the lead?” he said. “The central government plans to move some agencies to New Taipei City. Why can’t it move some to Taoyuan, Hsinchu, Miaoli or Taichung?”
Citing South Korea’s example, Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) — representing a Chiayi County constituency — said that by relocating some government institutions to Daejeon, which is 150km away from Seoul, “the South Korean government has helped to solve the issue of overcrowding in Seoul, while also helping Daejeon to develop.”
“This is also why many other countries like the Netherlands have more than one capital,” he added.
However, KMT Legislator Wu Yu-sheng (吳育昇), of New Taipei City, opposed the idea.
“It’s not even an issue,” Wu said. “We’ve already moved the headquarters of the Fisheries Agency to Greater Kaohsiung and the government-run Taiwan Sugar Corp to Greater Tainan, but it has not brought any actual impact to either city.”
A ministry official later said on condition of anonymity that relocating government agencies would not have much of an impact and would cost too much.
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