A recent decision by the Council of Economic Planning and Development to re-think a plan to build a trade exhibition center in Taipei City's Nankang Trade Park has triggered a backlash from the city government. Taipei County and Taoyuan County are trying hard to get the new exhibition center built in their jurisdictions. And now, disagreements between the Ministry of Economic Affairs and the council have prompted legislators from the ruling party and the opposition to join the fray. A simple decision over the site of a new trade center has become a political headache because of next year's presidential election.
Nankang was designated nine years ago as the site for a new exhibition center. It has always been the top choice of the ministry in terms of location, function and industrial considerations. But the council says the site is not suitable because it's not large enough and the area is prone to flooding. Council Vice Chairman Chang Jing-sen (張景森) said the government needed to re-evaluate the location because the initial plan to use a build-operate-transfer model has been ditched in favor of a government-funded project.
Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou's (馬英九) description of the sudden change as a repeat of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant fiasco was certainly exaggerated, but his dissatisfaction was understandable. Planning for the Nankang Trade Park has spanned the terms of three mayors -- Thomas Huang (黃大洲), Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) and Ma. The central government has pumped NT$9.3 billion into developing the exhibition center. Two freeway interchanges have been built to serve the industrial district and efforts to attract businesses to the area have been quite successful. The Legislative Yuan allocated NT$100 million for construction of the exhibition center in the previous session.
Ironically, Chang, who was the most fervent promoter of the Nankang center when he was Taipei City's urban planning chief, is now its biggest opponent. The sudden halt to the ministry's plan has naturally caused astonishment and invited political conjecture -- that the central government is trying to undermine Ma in favor of the DPP commissioner of Taipei County, Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌).
Political factors should not be the basis for this decision, only economic and infrastructure concerns should be taken into account. The nation's marketing advantage in international trade is evident in the large numbers of foreign companies coming here for trade shows, where booths are often hard to come by. Even though occupancy at the two exhibition centers at the Taipei World Trade Center has not yet reached saturation point, these venues nevertheless are inadequate for large-scale exhibitions. The non-profit trade promoter CETRA has complained that the number of overseas buyers coming here fell 10 percent last year mainly because of inadequate exhibition venues.
New exhibition venues are urgently needed. The planned center must be built -- and built quickly. Otherwise Taipei will be replaced by Shanghai and Hong Kong. The Nankang site is evidently the best choice at the moment, in terms of generating an industrial cluster effect, transportation, peripheral conditions and the completion date. If the council insists on a re-evaluation, another three to five years will be wasted and more competitive cities in other countries will fill the demand.
To improve the economy one needs not only a correct direction but also efficiency. Business opportunities and competitiveness cannot be wasted in the government's repeated evaluations. The central government should try to look far ahead because it will be the first to benefit from economic prosperity. Fighting over ownership of a golden egg before it is even laid is stupid.
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