Strengthening investment in public construction will be high on the government's economic agenda for the new year, stressed Premier Jiang Yi-huah at today's Executive Yuan Council meeting after hearing the Ministry of Finance's (MOF) report on the private sector's participation in such projects in 2013.
Private investment in public construction, promoted by the MOF as part of its efforts to put the Executive Yuan's Economic Power-Up Plan into practice, totaled NT$77.4 billion (US$2.6 billion) in contracts last year. This contributed greatly to Taiwan's economic development, the premier remarked, and he thanked the departments involved for their efforts.
However, some cases requiring larger amounts of money found no investors after their bidding invitations were announced, while contracts for certain other cases have not been signed due to various difficulties. Jiang requested the MOF and other relevant agencies to look into the root causes of these phenomena and proactively remove obstacles to investment.
"Although the government plans to release business opportunities worth NT$142.4 billion (US$4.78 billion) in total for private participation in public construction in 2014, the contract prices and number of cases conducted by the central government has decreased, as reported by the MOF," noted the premier. He instructed relevant agencies to check up on lands under their jurisdiction again, review their investment projects and assess the feasibility of inviting private-sector investment for different cases.
"As President Ma Ying-jeou mentioned in his New Year's Day Address, we must adopt aggressive measures to spur private investment. Introducing insurance-sector funds into public construction is a major policy of the Executive Yuan," Jiang remarked.
The premier requested the MOF and the Financial Supervisory Commission to jointly and proactively select investment projects suitable for the insurance sector to take part. He also asked Minister without Portfolio Schive Chi to take the initiative in inviting relevant agencies to take stock of the promotion of public construction, particularly investment from the insurance sector, and offer policy guidelines to the Executive Yuan.