Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) yesterday asked the Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC) to start planning for the establishment of a free trade zone in Kaohsiung that connects Kaohsiung Port with Kaohsiung International Airport.
Wu gave the instruction when he visited the MOTC and after being briefed by Minister Mao Chi-kuo (毛治國).
MOTC Deputy Minister Yeh Kuang-shih (葉匡時) said in a press conference after the briefing that Kaohsiung Port was building its sixth terminal.
To expand Kaohsiung Port’s land, Yeh said the ministry was planning to construct an expressway that would connect Kaohsiung Port to Freeway No. 10, which begins in Zuoying (左營) and ends in Cishan (旗山)Kaohsiung County.
“The government will have to use some farmland to build the expressway,” Yeh said. “We estimate that this will help expand the [port’s] area by approximately 200 hectares.”
Yeh said the property expansion would help turn Kaohsiung Port into a hub for value adding, where manufacturers reprocess goods to turn them into more valuable products.
Yeh also said Kaohsiung City Government was planning to expand Kaohsiung International Airport through a land reclamation project.
“The city is considering allowing the Kaohsiung Harbor Bureau to manage the reclaimed land, provided that it acquires some of the bureau’s properties for the city’s development, which will require further negotiations,” he said.
The ministry, however, has not set a specific timeline as to when construction of the expressway would begin, he said.
Meanwhile, the ministry said in its briefing to Wu that it was working with the Ministry of Economic Affairs to start replacing all gasoline-powered motorcycles on the nation’s island communities with electric motorcycles.
Yeh said the measure was proposed in conjunction with the nation’s policy to conserve energy to curb carbon dioxide emissions. The measure, if enacted, will apply to all islands, including Green Island (綠島), Lanyu (蘭嶼) and Liouciou (小琉球), he said.
“At this stage, we aim to use the electric motorcycles to develop eco-tourism in outlying islands,” Yeh said. “We have not talked about when the policy will apply to motorcyclists on Taiwan proper.”
When asked about the possibility of switching to electric cars, Yeh said the technology had not developed enough and the government could have problems implementing such a policy. The government may consider giving motorcycle owners incentives to switch, he said.
In addition to the policies on the free trade zone in Kaohsiung and electric motorcycles, Wu asked the ministry to complete a double-track rail system on the East Coast.
The MOTC should also respond to the needs of East Coast residents by constructing an alternative route to the highway that connects Suao (蘇澳) and Hualien, Wu said.
Wu on Tuesday said the Executive Yuan would complete a feasibility study on constructing an alternative to the mountain section of the controversial Suhua freeway.
The disputed Suhua freeway was proposed more than a decade ago to connect Yilan and Hualien counties.
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