Ma Ying-jeou’s Agricultural Well-Being Projects

Ma Ying-jeou’s Agricultural Well-Being Projects

Ma Ying-jeou’s Office August 27, 2007

KMT Presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou concluded his “long-stay” tour of southern Taiwan on August 25, visiting the Yunlin, Chiayi, and Tainan areas. In a forum in Chiayi, he brought up the “Five Agricultural Well-Being Projects” as follows:

1.Promote the “Small Landlords, Big Tenant Farmers” project to achieve triple-win objectives:
a)To encourage elderly farmers to retire;
b)To encourage young people to go into agriculture;
c)To resolve the problem of idle farm lands.

2.Appropriate NT$ 150 billion for a “Rural Area Revival Fund” with the aim of reviving 4,000 new farming villages and 600,000 farming households.

3.Construct a “New Golden Corridor for Agricultural Innovation” to upgrade agricultural production and increase the competitiveness of the agriculture industry.

4.Push for an 8-year, 60,000 hectares forestation plan to establish three large forested recreation parks in central and southern Taiwan.

5.Build a “Golden Seacoast” and increase land value.

Apart from the five Well-Being Projects, Ma Ying-jeou brought up other important polices when he visited the Taichung, Chunghwa and Nantou areas earlier. These policies, which also apply to the Yunlin, Chiayi, and Tainan areas, included:

1.Establish a NT$ 100 billion “Local Government Financial Reconstruction Fund” to improve local finances.
2.Appropriate NT$ 30 billion for a “Tourism Development Fund” to help counties and cities develop local tourism.
3.Appropriate NT$ 30 billion for a “Local Industries Development Fund” to help counties and cities develop local industries.
4.Increase monthly subsidies for elderly farmers from NT$ 5,000 to NT$ 6,000.

Targeting the Yunlin, Chiayi, and Tainan areas, Ma also announced in the same forum that he would push for Eight Local Well-Being Projects as follows:

1.Assist Chiayi City to become a transport and transshipment hub, as well as a tourist and leisure destination for the metropolitan area of Yunlin and Chiayi.
2.Build Alishan National Scenic Area into a major tourist destination for Mainland and international tourists.
3.Build Budai Port into a cross-Strait direct-link port.
4.Encourage Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp. to build a station in Yunlin.
5.Push for railway underground project in Tainan City.
6.Open up Anping Port as a cross-Strait direct-link port.
7.Finish the construction of an East-West expressway from Beimen to Yujing in Tainan County.
8.Speed up the development of the adjacent areas of Taiwan High Speed Rail’s Sha-lun Station (Tainan County), and build access roads.

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