The Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC) should continue to make the nation's tourism environments and transportation systems friendly and accessible to elderly and handicapped individuals, Premier Jiang Yi-huah said at today's Cabinet meeting.
The premier asked the MOTC to keep promoting obstacle-free travel routes in national scenic areas while inspecting and improving transportation hubs and vehicles to make them accessible so that elderly and handicapped people can all travel outdoors without difficulty. This effort will also broaden the market for foreign tourism in the country, he noted.
Pointing out that Taiwan has already become an aging society, Jiang enjoined various ministries to work together in making Taiwan an obstacle-free environment for senior citizens and people with disabilities. He directed central agencies to work with local governments in examining and overhauling all such facilities and services under their jurisdictions, including national parks, forest recreational areas, leisure farms, cultural parks and sites, designated scenic spots, tourism and recreational resorts as well as parks and green fields, to augment the government's efforts in this regard.
The premier made these remarks after hearing the MOTC's progress report on promoting accessible tourism environments nationwide.
The ministry stated that its Tourism Bureau has already implemented exemplary routes for accessible tourism at five national scenic areas: North Coast, Northeast Coast, Sun Moon Lake, Tri-Mountain and Dapeng Bay. Aside from the ongoing formulation of such routes, various "hard" and "soft" facilities have been revamped to serve handicapped people, elderly confined to wheelchairs, and babies in strollers. Some 176 such facilities, including barrier-free paths, hoisters, restrooms for the disabled, parking spaces and wheelchair seatings, were established in 2013.
Over 95 percent of tourist hotels in Taiwan have set up accessible facilities, the MOTC pointed out. Nevertheless, the government will continue to assist other accommodation venues to implement friendly tourism environments and improve relevant hard and soft facilities. It will also map out additional barrier-free tourism routes and guide the tourist lodging industry to promote accessible tourism environments and provide further information to visitors about related services in order to further nurture a friendly and barrier-free travel environment.
With respect to accessible transportation, the Ministry of Finance stated that the Legislative Yuan's Finance Committee yesterday passed its preliminary review of the amended Specifically Selected Goods and Services Tax Act. This amendment would provide a new five-year exemption or a five-year extension on an existing exemption from commodity taxes for buses which are low-chassis (no-step), natural-gas-fueled, energy-saving, or low-carbon as well as buses for disabled people. This incentive will help improve transportation vehicles for the elderly and handicapped and thus enable them to get around more easily, noted the agency.