The legislative caucuses of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the People First Party (PFP) said yesterday that they will support the Cabinet-drafted bill on the expansion of public investment in infrastructure construction, but will strictly screen the budgets for each project.
Several legislators from the KMT and PFP legislative caucuses made the remarks after the Legislative Yuan decided to discuss the investment bill at a plenary session slated for Friday, in order to provide the legal basis for the government's ambitious "10 New Major Public Construction Projects" program that calls for an outlay of NT$500 billion (US$15.15 billion) over the next five years.
The projects, which epitomize the essence of the "Challenge 2008" six-year development plan launched by the government, include programs for building a third freeway in central Taiwan, nurturing top-notch universities and research centers and expanding Kaohsiung's harbor into an intercontinental container center.
Liao Fung-te (廖風德), secretary-general of the KMT legislative caucus, said that to avoid being branded by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) as opponents of the program, the KMT and PFP will throw their support behind the public construction investment bill next Friday.
In addition, Liao stressed that the opposition will not insist that budget plans for the 10 construction projects be discussed and passed only after the new Cabinet is sworn in on May 20, when President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) is inaugurated to start his second four-year term.
Liao said that both the KMT and the PFP will cooperate with county magistrates and city mayors to come up with "counter-projects" detailing outlays required for local infrastructure construction.
"Once the Cabinet-drafted bill clears the legislature, budgets will not be completely used, contrary to the DPP government's plans, so that they will not become a scheme for the ruling party to win the year-end legislative elections," he said.
Meanwhile, Hsieh Chang-chieh (謝章捷) and Hsu Yuan-kuo (許淵國), both conveners of the PFP legislative caucus, said that as the "10 New Major Construction Projects" program has become a "political issue," PFP lawmakers cannot but support the program but will do their utmost to supervise the use of relevant budget allocations.
The government has so far not given a clear explanation of the contents of the new major construction programs or the source of the required fund, but has nevertheless pushed the opposition parties to render their support, they said.
Citing as an example one of the construction projects aimed at "promoting a local university to be among the world's top 100 over the next five years," Hsu claimed that several of the projects are impractical and controversial.
"National Taiwan University is ranked 160th in the world at the moment, but that institution would find it difficult to climb within the world's top 100 within five years, even if other world-renowned universities were to remain static during the period," he said.
Against this backdrop, the legislative caucuses of the KMT and the PFP are expected to come up with their own amendment versions for the public construction investment expansion bill.
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