About NT$3 billion (US$92.37 million) would be needed to revitalize tourism in Hualien County after it was devastated on April 3 by a quake measuring 7.2 on the Richter scale, Minister of Transportation and Communications Wang Kwo-tsai (王國材) said yesterday.
The quake, the largest to hit Taiwan in 25 years, caused severe damage to facilities and infrastructure in Hualien, including in Taroko National Park.
The Chateau de Chine in Hualien (花蓮翰品酒店) was forced to lay off 86 employees, as the hotel needs to be torn down and rebuilt due to damage.
Photo: Daniel Ceng, EPA-EFE
Many domestic travelers have canceled trips to the east coast due to aftershocks, which as of yesterday totaled 906.
The Ministry of the Interior on Monday said that the cost of rebuilding in Taroko National Park could reach NT$1 billion.
The Tourism Administration is planning three rounds of stimulus initiatives to reboot the tourism industry in the county, Wang told reporters before attending a Transportation Committee meeting at the legislature in Taipei.
The first round would consist mainly of disaster relief, while the second round would focus on funding for people whose homes were damaged or destroyed, he said.
The third round would be to subsidize individuals and group tours to Hualien after facilities are rebuilt, he said.
The initiatives have been estimated to exceed NT$3 billion, Wang said, adding that details would be finalized by the Executive Yuan and could be implemented next month.
The ministry is scouting for a potential corridor to build an extension of the Shuishalian Freeway — Freeway No. 6, which runs from Taichung’s Wufong District (霧峰) to Puli Township (埔里) in Nantou County and connects to Hualien County via provincial highways 14, 14A and 8 — to connect directly to Hualien, he said, adding that the study is to be completed by 2026.
The committee also reviewed a special bill proposed by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Fu Kun-chi (傅?萁) that would mandate an extension of the freeway to Hualien.
“We began scouting for a potential route last year and a feasibility study will be conducted once one has been identified,” Wang said.
The Freeway Bureau said in a report that the extension would be 90km and have 18 tunnels, with the longest being 17.4km.
Experts believe the cost to build the extension would be high, as construction could take years due to the unpredictable geological conditions in the Central Mountain Range, the report said.
The road would also affect the environment, which could compromise road safety, it said.
Democratic Progressive Party legislators Lee Kun-tse (李昆澤) and Tsai Chi-chang (蔡其昌) said they oppose a mandate to build the extension.
“Geological surveys, feasibility studies, environment impact assessments and financial planning must be conducted for such a project,” Lee said. “The Suhua Highway Improvement Project has proven its value given how it came through during the earthquake, showing that safety and sustainability should be the top priority for such projects.”
“I understand every legislator’s need to seek funding from the central government for projects in their districts, but making construction a mandate contradicts the constitutional principle of separation of powers,” Tsai said. “If this precedent were set, it could potentially be followed by hundreds of mandates.”
NO RECIPROCITY: Taipei has called for cross-strait group travel to resume fully, but Beijing is only allowing people from its Fujian Province to travel to Matsu, the MAC said The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday criticized an announcement by the Chinese Ministry of Culture and Tourism that it would lift a travel ban to Taiwan only for residents of China’s Fujian Province, saying that the policy does not meet the principles of reciprocity and openness. Chinese Deputy Minister of Culture and Tourism Rao Quan (饒權) yesterday morning told a delegation of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers in a meeting in Beijing that the ministry would first allow Fujian residents to visit Lienchiang County (Matsu), adding that they would be able to travel to Taiwan proper directly once express ferry
STUMPED: KMT and TPP lawmakers approved a resolution to suspend the rate hike, which the government said was unavoidable in view of rising global energy costs The Ministry of Economic Affairs yesterday said it has a mandate to raise electricity prices as planned after the legislature passed a non-binding resolution along partisan lines to freeze rates. Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers proposed the resolution to suspend the price hike, which passed by a 59-50 vote. The Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) voted with the KMT. Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) of the KMT said the resolution is a mandate for the “immediate suspension of electricity price hikes” and for the Executive Yuan to review its energy policy and propose supplementary measures. A government-organized electricity price evaluation board in March
FAST RELEASE: The council lauded the developer for completing model testing in only four days and releasing a commercial version for use by academia and industry The National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) yesterday released the latest artificial intelligence (AI) language model in traditional Chinese embedded with Taiwanese cultural values. The council launched the Trustworthy AI Dialogue Engine (TAIDE) program in April last year to develop and train traditional Chinese-language models based on LLaMA, the open-source AI language model released by Meta. The program aims to tackle the information bias that is often present in international large-scale language models and take Taiwanese culture and values into consideration, it said. Llama 3-TAIDE-LX-8B-Chat-Alpha1, released yesterday, is the latest large language model in traditional Chinese. It was trained based on Meta’s Llama-3-8B
NOVEL METHODS: The PLA has adopted new approaches and recently conducted three combat readiness drills at night which included aircraft and ships, an official said Taiwan is monitoring China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) exercises for changes in their size or pattern as the nation prepares for president-elect William Lai’s (賴清德) inauguration on May 20, National Security Bureau (NSB) Director-General Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥) said yesterday. Tsai made the comment at a meeting of the Legislative Yuan’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, in response to Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Wang Ting-yu’s (王定宇) questions. China continues to employ a carrot-and-stick approach, in which it applies pressure with “gray zone” tactics, while attempting to entice Taiwanese with perks, Tsai said. These actions aim to help Beijing look like it has