The Penghu County Government has decided to solicit NT$30 billion (US$909 million) in private investment to help develop massive casino resorts, the Public Construction Commission (PCC) reported yesterday.
As part of the Executive Yuan-initiated iTaiwan 12 Development Projects, Penghu has crafted an investment project to build tourist casinos at two locations in the offshore county.
The Penghu casino and resort project will be the largest program of the iTaiwan 12 Projects, PCC officials said.
It has been estimated that the mammoth i-Taiwan 12 Projects — initiated by President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) during his presidential campaign — will require investment of NT$3.99 trillion (US$121.57 billion) over a span of eight years, with the government funding NT$2.65 trillion and the private sector footing the rest.
The government hopes to induce the private sector to inject at least NT$200 billion a year to capitalize on the development projects, PCC officials said.
In Penghu, planning for the development of an “international vacation village,” which will be a 120-hectare zone featuring a tourist hotel with more than 2,000 rooms, a duty-free shopping mall, an international convention center, golf courses and casinos, will begin this year, the officials said.
Private investors are expected to be finalized by February 2010 with development work expected to kick off in 2011.
Two locations — the Houliao Bay (後寮灣) area and the Huhsi Port (湖西港) area — are expected to be candidates for the casino resort development plan, Penghu officials said.
However, any plans for development will remain on the drawing board until an amendment to the Offshore Islands Development Act (離島建設條例) is passed by the Legislative Yuan.
A countywide referendum on the building of casinos on Penghu would also have to be approved, the officials said.
An undersea cable to Penghu County has been severed, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said today, with a Chinese-funded ship suspected of being responsible. It comes just a month after a Chinese ship was suspected of severing an undersea cable north of Keelung Harbor. The National Communications and Cyber Security Center received a report at 3:03am today from Chunghwa Telecom that the No. 3 cable from Taiwan to Penghu was severed 14.7km off the coast of Tainan, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said. The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) upon receiving a report from Chunghwa Telecom began to monitor the Togolese-flagged Hong Tai (宏泰)
A cat named Mikan (蜜柑) has brought in revenue of more than NT$10 million (US$305,390) for the Kaohsiung MRT last year. Mikan, born on April 4, 2020, was a stray cat before being adopted by personnel of Kaohsiung MRT’s Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station. Mikan was named after a Japanese term for mandarin orange due to his color and because he looks like an orange when curled up. He was named “station master” of Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station in September 2020, and has since become famous. With Kaohsiung MRT’s branding, along with the release of a set of cultural and creative products, station master Mikan
Actor Lee Wei (李威) was released on bail on Monday after being named as a suspect in the death of a woman whose body was found in the meeting place of a Buddhist group in Taipei’s Daan District (大安) last year, prosecutors said. Lee, 44, was released on NT$300,000 (US$9,148) bail, while his wife, surnamed Chien (簡), was released on NT$150,000 bail after both were summoned to give statements regarding the woman’s death. The home of Lee, who has retreated from the entertainment business in the past few years, was also searched by prosecutors and police earlier on Monday. Lee was questioned three
RISING TOURISM: A survey showed that tourist visits increased by 35 percent last year, while newly created attractions contributed almost half of the growth Changhua County’s Lukang Old Street (鹿港老街) and its surrounding historical area clinched first place among Taiwan’s most successful tourist attractions last year, while no location in eastern Taiwan achieved a spot in the top 20 list, the Tourism Administration said. The listing was created by the Tourism Administration’s Forward-looking Tourism Policy Research office. Last year, the Lukang Old Street and its surrounding area had 17.3 million visitors, more than the 16 million visitors for the Wenhua Road Night Market (文化路夜市) in Chiayi City and 14.5 million visitors at Tainan’s Anping (安平) historical area, it said. The Taipei 101 skyscraper and its environs —
RSS