Allocation of Forward-looking Infrastructure Development Program funds was yesterday panned by academics affiliated with a pan-blue think tank, who called for revisions to remedy wasteful, pork-barrel spending.
“The distribution of funds provides clear evidence that this is completely a pork-barrel scheme,” National Competitiveness Forum chief executive Hsieh Ming-hui (謝明輝) said, adding that areas controlled by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) were allocated 84 percent of the original budget for local projects, compared with only 8 percent for areas controlled by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT).
Kaohsiung, the greatest beneficiary, was allocated almost 25 percent of the funds, compared with only 3 percent for New Taipei City, which received the greatest proportion of funds among KMT-controlled areas, he said.
Photo: Peng Wang-hsin, Taipei Times
Following a landslide victory in the nine-in-one local elections in November 2014, the DPP controls 13 of the nation’s 22 local governments, including every major city except for New Taipei City and Taipei.
Tamkang University professor of banking and finance Lee Wo-chiang (李沃牆) said the plans lacked truly “forward-looking” ideas and instead focused on traditional infrastructure projects, such as light rail systems, which comprise about half of the budgeted funds.
“Everyone knows that we are short on water, electricity and skilled workers. Are more rail lines what we really need?” Lee said. “Right now we are facing the consequences of an aging population following years of a low birth rate, and accompanying social welfare and long-term care spending are already straining our finances. Borrowing funds for the Forward-looking program will only make the situation worse.”
National Open University professor of public administration Jack Lee (李允傑) called for the budgeting of funds to be halted for projects that have yet to undergo a feasibility assessment, saying that such projects should also be revised to link to a soon-to-be-announced national land use plan.
The National Spatial Planning Act (國土計畫法) passed last year mandates that an overarching plan for national land usage be implemented next year.
The Construction and Planning Agency plans to hold exhibitions, presentations and review meetings over the next several months, Jack Lee said, adding that new land use regulations are expected to recognize national conservation zones and could potentially provide environmental groups a new tool to block approval of development projects.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
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Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching