The Executive Yuan yesterday said it would leave decisions on two major projects — the airport mass rapid transit (MRT) line and a waste incinerator in Yunlin County — to the incoming administration, while continuing to promote 10 major policies, including the Taoyuan Aerotropolis.
Premier Simon Chang (張善政) presided over a meeting to discuss 12 major policy items the Cabinet is pushing before turning over power to the new administration on May 20, when president-elect Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) is to assume office.
Executive Yuan spokesperson Sun Lih-chyun (孫立群) said that participants at the meeting decided that the operation date of the MRT line connecting Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport and the Greater Taipei area, and the waste incinerator project at Yunlin County’s Linnei Township (林內) would be left to the new administration.
The Executive Yuan cannot determine whether the airport MRT line would be operational before May 20, Sun said.
While there is no cause for concern about the safety of the long-delayed line, its one-way travel time has yet to meet the 35-minute cap as stipulated in its contract, mainly because of problems with the signal integration system, the speaker said.
Sun added that the aim of the Executive Yuan is to complete the project, quoting Chang as saying: “We have given birth to a child, but it has to be raised by the Taoyuan Metro Corp. If the company refuses to raise it, it would render our efforts pointless.”
Sun said that the Cabinet would respect the company’s decision on the timing for inaugurating the line.
As for the incinerator in Linnei, which has sparked controversy over the division of responsibility for waste treatment, Sun said it is 99.1 percent complete.
However, even if the incinerator had been completed, it could not be activated because former Yunlin County commissioner Su Chih-fen (蘇治芬) opposed its construction, he said.
As Su was elected a legislator earlier this month, the Executive Yuan does not think it likely that the incinerator will be operational before May 20, and therefore decided to hand over the issue to “the wisdom and leadership” of Tsai’s incoming government, Sun said.
Meanwhile, the Executive Yuan would continue to push its list of 10 policy items, which, in addition to the Taoyuan Aerotropolis, includes a dedicated research campus for marine science, funding for an additional synchrotron for theoretical research and a national museum of Aboriginal cultures.
Hualien County’s Environmental Science and Technology Park, plans to turn Taipei Railway Workshop into a national heritage site and the issue of whether to suspend Tainan’s aquaculture farms that were affected by China Petrochemical Development Corp’s now-defunct Anshun (安順) factory are also among the listed items, the Executive Yuan said.
The Cabinet will also push for a bill to combat tax evasion and to raise mandatory welfare donations on tobacco purchases, as well as organize a response to the EU’s issuance of a “yellow card” warning to Taiwan as a non-cooperative government in preventing illegal fishing.
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