President-elect Ma Ying jeou (馬英九) vowed yesterday to earmark NT$100 billion (US$3.3 billion) to help local governments solve their financial problems and NT$30 billion to attract tourists and develop other local industries.
Ma made the pledge while he and vice president-elect Vincent Siew (蕭萬長) attended a forum with representatives from industrial and commercial circles in southern counties and cities in Kaohsiung yesterday.
They discussed a variety of topics, including investment projects, the Suhua Freeway construction project and whether Cabinet meetings would be held in the south in future, in the hope that ministries could cooperate and assist in solving local problems.
About 100 leaders from industrial and commercial associations in Chiayi, Tainan, Kaohsiung, Pingtung and Penghu attended the forum to meet Ma and Siew, who were accompanied by economic affairs minister-designate Yiin Chii-ming (尹啟銘), incoming head of the Council for Economic Planning and Development Chen Tain-jy (陳添枝), secretary-general-to-be of the Executive Yuan Hsueh Hsiang-chuan (薛香川) and minister-to-be without portfolio Chu Yun-peng (朱雲鵬).
Ma said he understood the local government was having financial problems, adding that he would budget NT$100 billion to help solve these problems.
In addition, he would budget NT$30 billion for a fund that can be used to attract more tourists to the area, and another NT$30 billion that would go into a fund for local industries, to improve the area’s competitiveness.
Kaohsiung City Chamber of Commerce chairman Huang He-ping (黃和平) said that local public security should be improved so that investors would not have to worry. Kaohsiung Computer Association chairman Chuang Lien-hao (莊連豪) said that Kaohsiung did not need investment from big corporations and proposed that small and middle-sized enterprises should play a crucial role in the local market. He also said that a center for solar-power technology should be established there.
Tainan City Chamber of Commerce chairman Lin Hua-chen (林華禎) said that Anping Harbor should be developed into one of the ports used in the future three links so that Tainan could enhance its competitiveness. Kaohsiung County Chamber of Commerce chairman Tsai Tu-chin (蔡圖晉) said that future Cabinet meetings should be held in the south.
Other focal points were the reduction of carbon emissions and the losses of investors because of Eastern Multimedia Group chairman Gary Wang’s (王令麟) fraudulent activities.
Hsueh promised to study the issue of residences for foreign laborers.
Ma said that 3.71 million people enter Taiwan every year, including 1.61 million tourists, while 8.67 million Taiwanese leave the country each year as tourists.
The tourism industry needs to be strengthened so that this gap can be reduced. He said that the government would allocate money and make laws to achieve this.
Ma said his Cabinet would hold meetings in the south to solve local problems.
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