The Council for Economic Planning and Development (CEPD) will draw up a master plan in two weeks for rebuilding areas hit by Typhoon Morakot now that the Cabinet has proposed a special spending program, council Chairman Chen Tain-jy (陳添枝) said yesterday evening.
Chen told reporters the council would assess the viability of rebuilding mountain villages, tourist facilities and infrastructure destroyed in the typhoon’s wake.
After the council has mapped out a reconstruction plan, the ministries of transportation and communications, economics, agriculture and other agencies would submit four subprojects on restoring private and public properties, as well as agricultural and industrial production.
The Cabinet on Thursday proposed a special budget of NT$100 billion (US$3.03 billion) that would be spread over three fiscal years and raise GDP by 0.29 percentage points this year.
The government plans to spend NT$50 billion of the special budget this year — NT$25 billion for disaster relief and subsidies and another NT$25 billion on reconstruction work, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said a day earlier.
With food prices soaring in the wake of the typhoon, the consumer price index is expected to rise 0.5 percent this month after contracting for six straight months this year, the DGBAS said.
Chen voiced concern the reconstruction effort would prove difficult because some of the disaster-hit areas may never be restored.
“I’m afraid there must be quantitative control on the flow of traffic and people,” Chen said. “Some villagers would probably reject the plan and start a new life elsewhere.”
Chen shrugged off concerns about falling tourist arrivals, saying the phenomenon was temporary and would have a limited impact on the economy.
However, he voiced worries the storm may have a longer and bigger effect on domestic tourism.
“Some popular hot spring facilities in Kaohsiung and Taitung counties may be ruined forever,” he said.
Chen reaffirmed that the economy had bottomed out in the first quarter and turned positive last quarter based on the seasonally adjusted annualized rate under which GDP expanded 20.69 percent from the preceding three months.
Chen said the contraction began in the second quarter of last year and deteriorated to 27.21 percent in the fourth quarter, making Taiwan the hardest hit nation amid the global slump, Chen said.
However, Chen said the nation had made a strong comeback, adding that the downcycle might turn out shorter than expected. He expected the economy to return to the pre-recession level in the final quarter.
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