After being updated by the Public Construction Commission (PCC) on the promotion of public works in the third quarter of this year, Premier Sean Chen praised all public construction personnel for their efforts and urged them to work harder to improve their project implementation rates.
"Public construction is crucial to overall economic development and deserves greater attention," said the premier. The PCC and other agencies are working hard, and progress has been made, but there is still much room for improvement, he said, noting that although the tender cancelation rate for January to September has decreased 37.25 percent year-on-year, implementation rates are still relatively low. He asked all relevant agencies to rally over the next month and a half to complete this year's projects and best 2010's 92.41 percent implementation rate.
The government's 2012 budget for i-Taiwan 12 Projects is around NT$331 billion (US$11.4 billion). By the end of the third quarter, NT$215.6 billion (US$7.4 billion) had been allocated. Of that, NT$197.6 billion (US$6.8 billion) has been implemented, which is 91.65 percent of allocated funds and 59.69 percent of disposable funds, both year-on-year improvements over 2011.
The 2012 budget for flagship public works costing NT$100 million (US$3.4 million) or more is NT$388 billion (US$13.4 billion); as of the end of September, NT$225 billion (US$7.7 billion) had been allocated, and NT$211.4 billion (US$7.3 billion) had been implemented. The 93.98 percent allocated fund implementation rate is an improvement over January to September 2011, but the 54.44 disposable fund implementation rate is 3.75 percent less than in the first three quarters of 2011.
Meanwhile, the value of private investment contracts signed for public projects this year has rocketed from NT$9.3 billion (US$320 million) last year to NT$96.4 billion (US$3.3 billion) this year. Chen praised public construction officials for this advance.
The premier also commended the PCC for gathering new methods and suggestions at a conference it hosted on upgrading public works, then moving to send these proposals to other agencies. He asked PCC Minister Chern Jenn-chuan to inform other agency heads about them personally.
Government allocations for public construction between 2009 and Q3 of 2012 totaled around NT$1.43 trillion (US$49.3 billion), and approximately NT$1.33 trillion (US$45.8 billion) of that was implemented, a rate of 93.1 percent. The total implementation rate for all the government's projects, with three years and nine months of its eight-year plan in the books, is 47.54 percent, which is just passable, Chen said.
The PCC noted that construction implementation has peaked in the final quarter in recent years and pledged it and other agencies will redouble their efforts in a bid to spur economic growth and job creation.