Vice Premier Jiang Yi-huah promised to expedite the Taoyuan Aerotropolis development plan after hearing the opinions of various parties at a symposium held today. He instructed that the project schedule be reviewed at the coming task force committee meeting and that relevant agencies explain their plans to the parties concerned.
Jiang requested that the issues raised at today's meeting be resolved at future subgroup meetings, and he designated Deputy Secretary-General of the Executive Yuan Huang Min-kon to serve as the top liaison between the central and local governments. On the question of whether Taoyuan County's Fuhai Temple should be relocated to make room for development, Jiang said the wishes of local residents will be given top consideration.
The government highly values the Taoyuan Aerotropolis development—it is a flagship program of President Ma Ying-jeou's Golden Decade National Vision plan and an important part of the Executive Yuan's Economic Power-up Plan—and has been doing the preparatory work for years, including the relocation of the Taoyuan naval base as well as the renovation of Terminal 1 of the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport (TTIA) and the construction of its access roads, the vice premier said.
These efforts have achieved concrete results, the premier said; for example, the Airports Council International's airport service quality survey for the third quarter of 2012, released recently, ranked TTIA 11th among 193 airports globally, a considerable improvement on its ranking of 45th place in the first quarter. He attributed these achievements to the efforts of the Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC) and the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport Corporation (TTIAC).
The Executive Yuan's approval of the Taoyuan Aerotropolis project and establishment of a Cabinet-level task force convened by the vice premier was another turning point for the project this year. Jiang appointed Council for Economic Planning and Development Minister Yiin Chii-ming and MOTC Minister Mao Chi-kuo as deputy conveners. The task force established the project framework at its first meeting October 4 and set up three working groups: for urban planning and land acquisition, construction and development, and industry planning and trade investment.
The vice premier expressed hope that following today's meeting, all government agencies will listen to the opinions of the local people in Taoyuan to satisfy their needs and speed up the project at the same time. Jiang also mentioned that this project has critical importance not only for the 21st century development of Taoyuan's Dayuan and Luchu townships but for all of Taiwan as a whole. It will bring traffic infrastructure and industry development to the whole of Taoyuan and northern Taiwan, he said.
The Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) will hold several information sessions about the project in November and December. It has asked government agencies to explain Aerotropolis land acquisition, environmental impact assessment and other issues there. The Taoyuan county government has been invited to participate, and all are welcome to propose suggestions on the project to the task force.
The vice premier also inspected the airport's surrounding areas and the food court in the first terminal, accompanied by Deputy Secretary-General Huang, MOTC Deputy Minister Yeh Kuang-shih and TTIAC Chairman Kuo Tsai-wen.