The Taipei City Government might have no option but to borrow money to compensate Farglory Group if the city’s build-operate-transfer contract for the Taipei Dome project is dissolved, Taipei Department of Financial Affairs Commissioner Su Jain-rong (蘇建榮) said yesterday.
Su made the remark at a meeting of the Taipei City Council’s Finance and Construction Committee, where he was questioned by city councilors about how the city plans to come up with the compensation, which Farglory has said would be NT$37 billion (US$1.15 billion).
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Taipei City Councilor Wang Chih-bing (汪志冰) asked Su whether the city had the money ready if Farglory asked for compensation to be put in a trust.
Su said that compensation could be paid in one effort or in installments, but that in either case the expenditure would need to be approved by the city council, meaning that the city government would have to borrow the money, judging from the present circumstances.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Taipei City Councilor Chang Mao-nan (張茂楠) on Monday said it would be impossible for the city council to allow the city government to compensate Farglory by using taxpayers’ money.
Wang asked Su whether the city’s comment that it did not plan on spending a cent for the contract’s termination meant that the Dome would be taken over by a third party, to which Su said that it is not yet clear how the contract would be dissolved.
KMT Taipei City Councilor Tai Shi-chin (戴錫欽) said he suspects the city government is planning to sell its Fubon Financial Holding Co stock — valued at NT$54 billion — so that it would not have to grant the compensation using public capital.
Meanwhile, Taipei City Government spokesman Sidney Lin (林鶴明) reiterated that the city’s stance on dissolving the contract had not changed since Taipei Deputy Mayor Teng Chia-chi (鄧家基) announced the plan last week.
Asked during a Monday lunch-meeting with Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) if any DPP city councilors suggested that the Dome be torn down, Lin said that some of them did, but the city would take the option that is in the public’s best interests.
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