The verdict issued by the Taipei High Administrative Court on Friday that deprived the Far Eastern Electronic Toll Collection Co of its priority status as installer of the nation's first electronic toll-collection (ETC) system has proved an embarrassment for the government and the contractor, and raised more uncertainties for motorists. The ruling has hurt the government's credibility and casts uncertainty over the future use of the build-operate-transfer (BOT) model.
Unlike the current toll system, where motorists have to brake to a stop at the toll plaza and hand over a ticket or cash to a tolltaker, the high-tech ETC system allows motorists to roll past a toll booth while a roadside sensor identifies the vehicle and performs an electronic transaction on a pre-paid account.
This type of system has become increasingly popular in other countries in recent years, and is worthy of support if it can increase toll lane capacity and reduce motorists' waiting times.
But the ETC system was plagued with problems even before the NT$10 billion (US$307.7 million) BOT project was awarded in February 2004 to Far Eastern, a joint venture headed by Far Eastone Telecommunications Co and Austria's Efkon AG.
Because of the business opportunities the project was thought likely to generate, more than NT$300 billion according to some estimates, there was much debate over which technology would perform best -- microwave or infrared technology. Far Eastern chose infrared. However, the whole project subsequently became mired in allegations of corruption -- including charges that standards were lowered to suit the chosen contractor -- and judicial authorities are still investigating several legislators, Ministry of Transportation and Communications officials and representatives of ETC providers.
When Far Eastern launched the service earlier this month more chaos ensued. Consumers complained that the system's vehicle on-board units (OBUs) were too expensive and threatened to boycott the service.
During the Lunar New Year holiday, the system almost paralyzed heavy holiday traffic because few vehicles were equipped with OBUs and therefore able to use the exclusive lanes set aside for the service.
The government has said it is considering appealing Friday's ruling to the Supreme Administrative Court. If it loses the appeal, it may either reopen the tender or abandon the BOT model and run the system itself.
The government's pledge to safeguard the rights of motorists regardless of the result of the appeal is welcome news, but at the same time, it's potential move to take over the system and use taxpayers' money to run the project is a concern.
In the face of the government's persistent budget deficits, how is it that it suddenly believes there may be sufficient funds to run the project, when it originally adopted the BOT model to save taxpayers' money?
A second concern is that the government has said it may buy back Far Eastern's toll facilities if its appeal fails. However, it's not clear that Far Eastern's infrared technology is the best solution. It is only suitable for single-lane toll collection, not the multi-lane free-flow toll collection that microwave technology can serve.
The government has been trying to minimize the damage in the wake of Friday's ruling. At the least, it should learn the lesson that it needs to increase the transparency of screening processes for future BOT projects.
Unfortunately, taxpayers are the ultimate losers in this project. It remains to be seen whether a more reasonable ETC system can be devised out of the ruins of the current mess.
Concerns that the US might abandon Taiwan are often overstated. While US President Donald Trump’s handling of Ukraine raised unease in Taiwan, it is crucial to recognize that Taiwan is not Ukraine. Under Trump, the US views Ukraine largely as a European problem, whereas the Indo-Pacific region remains its primary geopolitical focus. Taipei holds immense strategic value for Washington and is unlikely to be treated as a bargaining chip in US-China relations. Trump’s vision of “making America great again” would be directly undermined by any move to abandon Taiwan. Despite the rhetoric of “America First,” the Trump administration understands the necessity of
US President Donald Trump’s challenge to domestic American economic-political priorities, and abroad to the global balance of power, are not a threat to the security of Taiwan. Trump’s success can go far to contain the real threat — the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) surge to hegemony — while offering expanded defensive opportunities for Taiwan. In a stunning affirmation of the CCP policy of “forceful reunification,” an obscene euphemism for the invasion of Taiwan and the destruction of its democracy, on March 13, 2024, the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) used Chinese social media platforms to show the first-time linkage of three new
If you had a vision of the future where China did not dominate the global car industry, you can kiss those dreams goodbye. That is because US President Donald Trump’s promised 25 percent tariff on auto imports takes an ax to the only bits of the emerging electric vehicle (EV) supply chain that are not already dominated by Beijing. The biggest losers when the levies take effect this week would be Japan and South Korea. They account for one-third of the cars imported into the US, and as much as two-thirds of those imported from outside North America. (Mexico and Canada, while
The military is conducting its annual Han Kuang exercises in phases. The minister of national defense recently said that this year’s scenarios would simulate defending the nation against possible actions the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) might take in an invasion of Taiwan, making the threat of a speculated Chinese invasion in 2027 a heated agenda item again. That year, also referred to as the “Davidson window,” is named after then-US Indo-Pacific Command Admiral Philip Davidson, who in 2021 warned that Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) had instructed the PLA to be ready to invade Taiwan by 2027. Xi in 2017
RSS