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Forward-Looking Construction Plan Is Too Coarse; It Should Be Withdrawn for Redrafting

icon2017/04/25
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  Forward-Looking Construction Plan Is Too Coarse; It Should Be Withdrawn for Redrafting

China Times Editorial (Taipei, Taiwan, ROC)

April 19, 2017

 Translation of an Except

The Legislative Yuan held public hearings on the bill entitled Special Statute for Forward-looking Infrastructure Construction. From the reports of the relevant ministries and statements from local governments, we can see that this is a plan that has not undergone a feasibility assessment and financial planning, being reduced to a hodgepodge of political spoils. As a responsible government, it should take an abrupt, timely decision to suspend its operations, examining anew all the items in the plan. The government should make sure that only with actual needs and adequate self-sustaining capacity will it make reasonable distribution based on the existing fiscal situation and resources.

In March this year, the Executive Yuan introduced the Forward-looking Infrastructure Plan, aiming to push for infrastructure construction in order to stimulate prosperity. Initially it proposed a total budget of NT$882.5 billion, including green track construction, digital infrastructure construction, green energy infrastructure construction, water resources infrastructure construction, and urban-rural infrastructure construction. However, the public hearings show that for as high as NT$400 billion of the construction plan, from the Ministry of Transportation and Communications to the local governments, to the surprise of all, could not even present an assessment report with some rudimentary backing as the basis for seeking funds. The public hearings were full of populist and metaphysical rhetoric.

Besides the problem of efficacy and assessment of the plan, the Executive Yuan also has myriad problems in the matter of distribution of the pie. Whether it was the location of last year's five big innovation industry sites or the distribution points of today’s track construction, it smells too obviously of political spoils. The counties and cities under Green camp rule monopolized nearly all of the projects. We understand that in the fight for distribution of politico-economic resources, it has always been impossible to eliminate political factors; however, in the matter of proportion, it shouldn’t be that unreasonable. This unreasonableness in fact is more prone to cause misplacement of resources, impacting the efficacy of construction.

Taiwan has been behind in investment for a long time; in recent years, private sector investment has been low. It requires that the government use fiscal policies to support economic growth; Taiwan’s infrastructure also needs upgrading. However, the Forward-looking Plan, resorting to distribution by political spoils, and having undergone no professional cost-benefit assessment, is rushed through the Legislative Yuan for adoption of a special budget statute. Thus the fate is sealed that we will see more construction projects for breeding mosquitoes. The citizens cannot accept this kind of squandering of taxpayers’ money, duplicating black holes one after another. The Executive Yuan should withdraw the Forward-looking Plan and reintroduce the project after going through professional assessments, presenting financial planning, and ascertaining the fond of the special budget.

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