Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp (THSRC,
The NT$450 billion high-speed railway is not only Taiwan's first build-operate-transfer (BOT) project, it is also the world's biggest BOT venture. But the project has been shaky from the very beginning -- before it even got off the drawing board. It hasn't been helped by the fact that the government's concept of BOT has always been fuzzy and its methods ambivalent. Fundraising has been a major difficulty. And adding to the woes, the THSRC's decision to shift from Alstom-Siemens Eurotrain as the system's builder to the Taiwan Shinkansen Consortium trig-gered a lawsuit by the European consortium.
Now opposition lawmakers appear determined to derail the project -- even though it's supposed to be one of the crowning glories of the former KMT government, which signed the original BOT contract. Their efforts appear to be just more of the KMT's Jekyll and Hyde maneuvers that have cemented its reputation not only as a poor loser in elections but a party that is completely out of touch with reality as well.
The Legislative Yuan's meddling in the matter is unnecessary. Not only are some of the lawmakers' demands laughable and unreasonable, they are obviously based on ulterior motives. The high-speed railway is already 30 percent complete. To enact a special law on the project now is the same as changing the rules of the game halfway into the match -- and is patently unfair to the THSRC. BOT legislation should not be retroactive. Implementation of the law should strictly abide by the government's contract with the THSRC, no matter who stands to benefit from the contract.
Using budget laws and the legislature's budgetary powers to constrain the project runs counter to the spirit of BOT fund-raising -- as does the opposition's move to halt investment in the THSRC by the Postal Savings Fund. Asking the THSRC to abide by the Government Procurement Act (
The railway passes through a large amount of land owned by the state-owned Taisugar Co (
Since the rail project is Taiwan's first experience with BOT, all the parties involved are learning through trial and error. Legislative debates can serve to encourage public discussion on the viability of BOT projects. Ideally, the result of such discussion and debate would be the enactment of specialized BOT regulations. Unfortunately, given Taiwan's legislative history, the more likely outcome will be that political interest groups will hold the high-speed rail project hostage and end up ensuring it will be a disaster.
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