The National Development Council (NDC) yesterday unveiled three major strategies to promote the government’s Trillion NT Dollar Investment National Development Plan, aiming to encourage private funds to invest in public infrastructure projects, including airports and mass rapid transport systems.
The plan was introduced by the Executive Yuan’s Economic Development Committee earlier this week, highlighting the government’s commitment to injecting momentum into the country’s economy while addressing regional development imbalances.
To achieve the goal, the NDC would establish a mechanism to promote the private sector’s innovative participation in infrastructure projects, then optimize investment and financing conditions for public construction and increase financial products related to public construction projects, it said in a report submitted to the Executive Yuan.
Photo courtesy of Executive Yuan
Regarding the mechanism for promoting innovative participation in public infrastructure, the council said it would set up a special task force to allow the government and the private sector to jointly propose infrastructure projects.
The task force would facilitate cross-ministry coordination and communication; take feedback from representatives of the private sector, experts and academics; and promote deregulation, it said.
As for optimizing investment and financing conditions for public construction projects, the council said that the risk coefficient applicable to insurance firms that have direct investments in public infrastructure through domestic private equity funds and venture capital firms would be lowered to 1.28 percent from 10.18 percent, it said.
That means insurance companies would only need about one-10th of the capital currently required for public infrastructure investments, a change that is expected to encourage insurers to allocate more capital to the local market rather than to foreign assets, the NDC said.
The council would also review strategic industry cases with public construction elements to ease investment limits on the insurance industry, increase financing guarantees from the government and improve the efficiency of capital utilization, it added.
In terms of increasing financial products related to public construction, the government aims to promote real-estate investment trusts, expand the issuance of sustainable development bonds and push public construction securitization, the council said, adding that it would help the government reduce public construction financing costs while providing high-quality financial products for private investors.
Several potential projects are applicable to the issuance of sustainable development bonds, including planned expansion of the Kaohsiung MRT’s Orange Line, Kaohsiung International Airport’s new terminal project, a Taoyuan MRT project and social housing projects run by the Ministry of the Interior, the council said, adding that it expects NT$510 billion to NT$610 billion (USS$15.7 billion to US$18.8 billion) of sustainable development bonds would be issued for public infrastructure, with a yield of 1.26 to 1.27 percent.
The national investment plan would be jointly promoted by the council, the Ministry of Finance and other ministries, as well as the Financial Supervisory Commission, it said.
It is projected to attract NT$682.9 billion from the private sector to participate in public infrastructure from next year to 2028 and create 126,000 jobs, the council said.
NATIONAL SECURITY: The Chinese influencer shared multiple videos on social media in which she claimed Taiwan is a part of China and supported its annexation Freedom of speech does not allow comments by Chinese residents in Taiwan that compromise national security or social stability, the nation’s top officials said yesterday, after the National Immigration Agency (NIA) revoked the residency permit of a Chinese influencer who published videos advocating China annexing Taiwan by force. Taiwan welcomes all foreigners to settle here and make families so long as they “love the land and people of Taiwan,” Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) told lawmakers during a plenary session at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei. The public power of the government must be asserted when necessary and the Ministry of
Proposed amendments would forbid the use of all personal electronic devices during school hours in high schools and below, starting from the next school year in August, the Ministry of Education said on Monday. The Regulations on the Use of Mobile Devices at Educational Facilities up to High Schools (高級中等以下學校校園行動載具使用原則) state that mobile devices — defined as mobile phones, laptops, tablets, smartwatches or other wearables — should be turned off at school. The changes would stipulate that use of such devices during class is forbidden, and the devices should be handed to a teacher or the school for safekeeping. The amendments also say
EMBRACING TAIWAN: US lawmakers have introduced an act aiming to replace the use of ‘Chinese Taipei’ with ‘Taiwan’ across all Washington’s federal agencies A group of US House of Representatives lawmakers has introduced legislation to replace the term “Chinese Taipei” with “Taiwan” across all federal agencies. US Representative Byron Donalds announced the introduction of the “America supports Taiwan act,” which would mandate federal agencies adopt “Taiwan” in place of “Chinese Taipei,” a news release on his page on the US House of Representatives’ Web site said. US representatives Mike Collins, Barry Moore and Tom Tiffany are cosponsors of the legislation, US political newspaper The Hill reported yesterday. “The legislation is a push to normalize the position of Taiwan as an autonomous country, although the official US
CHANGE OF TONE: G7 foreign ministers dropped past reassurances that there is no change in the position of the G7 members on Taiwan, including ‘one China’ policies G7 foreign ministers on Friday took a tough stance on China, stepping up their language on Taiwan and omitting some conciliatory references from past statements, including to “one China” policies. A statement by ministers meeting in Canada mirrored last month’s Japan-US statement in condemning “coercion” toward Taiwan. Compared with a G7 foreign ministers’ statement in November last year, the statement added members’ concerns over China’s nuclear buildup, although it omitted references to their concerns about Beijing’s human rights abuses in Xinjiang, Tibet and Hong Kong. Also missing were references stressing the desire for “constructive and stable relations with China” and
RSS