The long-delayed southern branch of the National Palace Museum in Chiayi County will open in 2015, Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) said yesterday as he announced that construction would begin on Oct. 18.
Wu told a press conference that the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) government would complete the construction one year ahead of the schedule set by the former Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) government as it had managed to “solve problems left by its predecessor.”
The government has come up with a solution to deal with flooding in the area — the museum is to be built on a 70 hectare sugarcane field in Taipao City (太保) — after the project was again delayed because of floods caused by Typhoon Morakot in 2009.
Museum director Chou Kung-Hsin (周功鑫) said the Water Resources Agency had examined ways to resolve flooding in the area, including raising the embankment on both sides of Puzih River (朴子溪) and building a water-pumping station nearby.
At a separate setting, DPP Legislator and former Chiayi County commissioner Chen Ming-wen (陳明文) said the government’s timetable could be “another empty promise.”
Chen said that President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) had already failed to honor the promise he made during the 2008 presidential campaign that construction of the facility would be completed by the end of this year and would open to the public next year.
Marked as the biggest public investment in Chiayi County in 50 years, the project, with a budget of NT$7.9 billion (US$257.5 million), was positioned as a full-fledged museum that would serve as an exhibition, preservation, research and educational facility focusing on “Asian culture and art,” including ancient Chinese culture, northeast, southeast and south Asia and Taiwan itself.
The project, which was approved by the DPP government in 2004, was originally scheduled for completion in 2008.
In 2007, the then-DPP government pushed back the target date for the museum’s completion to 2016, mainly because of years of delay in approving the budget because of boycotts by the KMT-dominated legislature.
The boycotts led to the US-based Antoine Predock Architect PC, the original designer, dropping the project in November 2008, after it failed to reach an agreement with the National Palace Museum on the added costs incurred by the delays and rising prices for building materials.
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