President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) yesterday praised the naming of a major road in an indigenous language as an innovative way to promote traditional culture and ethnic equality.
Addressing a ceremony in Tainan County marking the opening of the "Tackalan Boulevard" connecting the Southern Taiwan Science Park to Sun Yat-sen Freeway, Chen said giving the major road an Aboriginal name was inspiring and symbolic of the trailblazing spirit of the Aboriginal tribes known as the Pingpu.
Authorities chose the name "Tackalan" because the new road crosses Anting Township(安定), which Dutch colonizers called by the Aboriginal name.
Centuries ago, Tackalan was a thriving river-fishing location populated by Aboriginals. It gradually grew into a farming village as the river became congested with silt.
Chen praised the Tainan County Government, saying the construction of three major roads connecting satellite districts to the science park and freeway would help generate jobs for local residents and attract investment from the private sector to the nation's second-largest science park.
Also at the ceremony, Tainan County Commissioner Su Huan-chih (蘇煥智) echoed Chen's statement that Tackalan Boulevard would speed up the region's development.
Construction of the three major roads surrounding the Southern Taiwan Science Park cost the county government approximately NT$6.6 billion (US$203.7 million), Su said.
Another of the three major roads, Baccloangh Boulevard, is open to traffic, while the third, Siraya East Road -- named after a Pingpu tribe -- is under construction, Su said.
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