The Cabinet has approved a record six-year budget for the preservation of cultural heritage, the Ministry of Culture said yesterday.
The Cabinet allotted NT$15.944 billion (US$499.3 million) from next year to 2029 for the ministry’s fifth program of historical and cultural heritage maintenance and development, the ministry said in a news release.
Taiwan has 2,874 tangible cultural heritage items, including monuments, historic buildings, archeological sites and cultural landscapes, the ministry said.
Photo: CNA
Among the 627 applications for cultural heritage preservation submitted by local governments in the past three years, 447 were rejected without review due to insufficient funds, the ministry added.
To tackle the problem, Minister of Culture Shih Che (史哲) shortly after he took office at the end of January ordered the Bureau of Cultural Heritage to conduct a thorough investigation of cultural heritage sites in each administrative region, it said.
Shih asked the bureau to draw up a detailed plan for the fifth maintenance and development program and expand its scope, it said.
The bureau also expedited the review of cultural heritage preservation applications to help local governments fix and preserve damage to cultural assets, the ministry said.
During the first phase of the review, the bureau approved 357 out of 433 applications from across Taiwan with a budget of NT$5.9 billion, NT$3.6 billion of which would be subsidized by the ministry, it said.
The subsidy could help local governments launch projects they were unable to due to budget considerations, such as restoration of the Chen Tian-lai Residence in Taipei, the Rui-san (瑞三) coal handling plant in New Taipei City’s Rueifang District (瑞芳) and the Japanese-style dormitories at the former Tainan agricultural school, it said.
The ministry would continue to work hand-in-hand with local governments to promote the preservation of cultural heritage sites across the country, and improve their management, maintenance and revitalization, it added.
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