The Ministry of Transport and Communications (交通部) is prepared to implement "small three links" with China as soon as the new Cabinet approves the measure, the agency's incoming head, Yeh Chu-lan (葉菊蘭), said yesterday.
Speaking at a luncheon hosted by the Taiwan Unified Alliance (
"As soon as a decision is made on the issue, the ministry will be ready to implement the policy," Yeh said.
The opening of the "small three links" was approved by the Legislature after the presidential election and allows for direct trade, transport and communication links between Taiwan's outlying islands of Matsu, Penghu and Kinmen and China.
While the legislature has passed the Outlying Islands Development Act, effectively opening the links, the Cabinet has held off on signing the act into law, leaving the final decision to the incoming administration.
Kinmen lawmaker Chen Ching-pao (陳清寶) proposed a variation of the plan, suggesting the incoming minister consider what he described as a "breakthrough" concept that would bring lasting peace between the two sides.
"A bridge could be built between the two islands of Kinmen and then on to Xiamen," Chen said. "Across this bridge, cross-strait ties could improve."
Although Chen's bid to pass the proposal for a bridge to Xiamen failed last year in the Legislature, he reiterated his belief that the physical link could facilitate peace across the Taiwan Strait.
"From the initial planning stage of the Kinmen-Xiamen bridge, lasting cross-strait peace would slowly begin to grow," Chen said.
Chen supported the proposal to open "small three links" and agreed that it would likely help bring peace across the Taiwan Strait, but that implementation was still some way off.
"The most likely method of opening up links to China would be through the `small three links' model, but the plan will still require much more work and, in the short-term, it is unclear how far the new Cabinet can develop such a plan," Chen said.
Yeh responded by saying that such a plan would be of "even greater significance" than just simply opening the links, and a decision was not the transportation ministry's to make.
In announcing the ministry's readiness to implement the new cross-strait policy, Yeh made it clear that the ministry was not in the business of deciding policy matters for the new government, but instead is simply the working arm of the new administration when it comes to transportation and communications issues.
"The ministry implements policy, it does not decide on it," she said.
Yeh's comments follows President-elect Chen Shui-bian's (
Indeed, Chen publicly rebuffed incoming Minister of Finance Shea Jia-dong's (
Taichung reported the steepest fall in completed home prices among the six special municipalities in the first quarter of this year, data compiled by Taiwan Realty Co (台灣房屋) showed yesterday. From January through last month, the average transaction price for completed homes in Taichung fell 8 percent from a year earlier to NT$299,000 (US$9,483) per ping (3.3m²), said Taiwan Realty, which compiled the data based on the government’s price registration platform. The decline could be attributed to many home buyers choosing relatively affordable used homes to live in themselves, instead of newly built homes in the city’s prime property market, Taiwan Realty
The government yesterday approved applications by Alphabet Inc’s Google to invest NT$27.08 billion (US$859.98 million) in Taiwan, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said in a statement. The Department of Investment Review approved two investments proposed by Google, with much of the funds to be used for data processing and electronic information supply services, as well as inventory procurement businesses in the semiconductor field, the ministry said. It marks the second consecutive year that Google has applied to increase its investment in Taiwan. Google plans to infuse NT$25.34 billion into Charter Investments Ltd (特許投資顧問) through its Singapore-based subsidiary Fructan Holdings Singapore Pte Ltd, and
JET JUICE: The war on Iran’s secondary effects have seen fuel prices skyrocket, knocking flight schedules down to earth in return as airlines struggle with costs Airline passengers should brace for more irritation in the next few months as carriers worldwide cancel flights and ground planes to cope with stratospheric increases in jet-fuel prices. Dutch flag carrier KLM is the latest company to cut its schedule, saying on Thursday that it would scrap 80 return flights at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport in the coming month. That puts it in the same league as United Airlines Holdings Inc, Deutsche Lufthansa AG and Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd, which have all pruned itineraries to mitigate costs. Global capacity for next month has been reduced by about 3 percentage points, with all
The US said it plans to help build a first-of-its-kind industrial hub in the Philippines to boost production of inputs crucial to US supply chains. The 4,000-acre hub is intended to be “a purpose-built platform for allied manufacturing” and “an investment acceleration hub where the specific industrial activities are shaped by market demand,” the US Department of State said on Thursday. The project — touted as an “economic security zone” — would be within the Luzon Economic Corridor, a flagship economic project backed by the US and Japan on the main Philippine island. The project was also described as “the first artificial intelligence
RSS