Not a single investor has expressed an interest in developing the old port zone at the Port of Kaohsiung, one of the locations considered by the Kaohsiung City Government to implement its “Love Ferris wheel” and shopping mall project, Taiwan International Ports Corp (TIPC) said yesterday.
The project was one of Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu’s (韓國瑜) campaign promises as he ran for mayor last year.
It would be built by the Love River (愛河) and feature cars that double as “motel rooms,” he said at the time, adding that it would cost more than NT$10 billion (US$329.85 million at the current exchange rate) and create 3,000 jobs.
Photo: Chang Chung-yi, Taipei Times
However, three of the four locations the city government yesterday offered as options to build the Ferris wheel are not along the river. They are piers Nos. 4 to 8; piers Nos. 16 to 18; and pier No. 21, also known as the old port zone.
The ports company issued a statement after the city accused it of not cooperating in implementing the project and threatened to raise the percentage of funds it would receive from the development of Pier No. 21 from 42 to 52 percent.
“We have been welcoming carriers interested in offering passenger shipping services at the Port of Kaohsiung, as well as tourism and leisure business developers. However, no investor has contacted us to talk about the development plan. We will seek to communicate with the Kaohsiung City Government on this matter,” TIPC said.
The agreement it signed with the city in June states that 42 percent of the funds generated from the development of the old port zone would be given to the city, it said.
As such, the company, as well as the government agency supervising the land development plan, are carefully reviewing the plan and gauging the potential benefits that could be created from it, TIPC said.
This is done to ensure that government properties will be used in the most efficient way possible, it added.
The land development firm that it has established with the city is designed to address the issues related to the percentage of funds that is to be received by the city, TIPC said.
Should the city demand that the percentage be raised from 42 to 52 percent, the land development firm would have no option but to allow TIPC to enforce the development of the old port zone on its own, it said.
“Raising the percentage would only increase the costs for the investors, which in turn would lower the financial benefits,” TIPC said, adding that this would alienate investors.
The land development firm has already proposed plans to attract investors, and interested parties are welcome to talk to it and present their proposals, TIPC said.
“If the management of the land development firm considers any of the proposals to be feasible, it would apply for a permit from the port company to execute the development plan,” it added.
Taiwanese paleontologists have discovered fossil evidence that pythons up to 4m long inhabited Taiwan during the Pleistocene epoch, reporting their findings in the international scientific journal Historical Biology. National Taiwan University (NTU) Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology associate professor Tsai Cheng-hsiu (蔡政修) led the team that discovered the largest snake fossil ever found in Taiwan. The single trunk vertebra was discovered in Tainan at the Chiting Formation, dated to between 400,000 and 800,000 years ago in the Middle Pleistocene, the paper said. The area also produced Taiwan’s first avian fossil, as well as crocodile, mammoth, saber-toothed cat and rhinoceros fossils, it said. Discoveries
Taiwanese paleontologists have discovered fossil evidence that pythons up to 4m long inhabited Taiwan during the Pleistocene epoch, reporting their findings in the international scientific journal Historical Biology. National Taiwan University (NTU) Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology associate professor Tsai Cheng-hsiu (蔡政修) led the team that discovered the largest snake fossil ever found in Taiwan. A single trunk vertebra was discovered in Tainan at the Chiting Formation, dated to between 800,000 to 400,000 years ago in the Middle Pleistocene, the paper said. The area also produced Taiwan’s first avian fossil, as well as crocodile, mammoth, sabre-toothed cat and rhinoceros fossils, it said. Discoveries
Whether Japan would help defend Taiwan in case of a cross-strait conflict would depend on the US and the extent to which Japan would be allowed to act under the US-Japan Security Treaty, former Japanese minister of defense Satoshi Morimoto said. As China has not given up on the idea of invading Taiwan by force, to what extent Japan could support US military action would hinge on Washington’s intention and its negotiation with Tokyo, Morimoto said in an interview with the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) yesterday. There has to be sufficient mutual recognition of how Japan could provide
UPDATED TEST: The new rules aim to assess drivers’ awareness of risky behaviors and how they respond under certain circumstances, the Highway Bureau said Driver’s license applicants who fail to yield to pedestrians at intersections or to check blind spots, or omit pointing-and-calling procedures would fail the driving test, the Highway Bureau said yesterday. The change is set to be implemented at the end of the month, and is part of the bureau’s reform of the driving portion of the test, which has been criticized for failing to assess whether drivers can operate vehicles safely. Sedan drivers would be tested regarding yielding to pedestrians and turning their heads to check blind spots, while drivers of large vehicles would be tested on their familiarity with pointing-and-calling
RSS