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Updated Saturday, December 6, 2008 9:30 am TWN, CNA

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Local areas’ public works projects will be launched in time: minister

TAIPEI, Taiwan -- With a NT$58.3 billion (US$1.75 billion) infrastructure expansion project in an economic stimulus package put in place by the central government, local governments are confident that construction of public works projects in their area will be launched by the end of this year, Public Construction Commission Minister Frank Fan said yesterday.

Fan made the remarks at a news conference held following a meeting earlier Friday with Premier Liu Chao-shiuan. Also present at the meeting were government officials from 11 local areas, where the launch of public works projects have lagged behind that of Taiwan’s 14 other cities and counties.

According to Fan, Liu encouraged the local governments to closely cooperate with the Executive Yuan in completing construction of their projects so as to help stimulate Taiwan’s economy.

At present, an average 72.09 percent of all the public construction projects nationwide — 6,733 cases out of a total of 9,340 — are under construction, Fan said.

As of early December, only the offshore Kinmen and Lienchiang counties have fully launched construction of their 11 and five projects, respectively, Fan noted.

However, the 11 local cities and counties — including Yilan, Hsinchu, Taitung, Nantou, Tainan, Kaohsiung, Changhua, Taipei, Yunlin, Pingtung counties and Chiayi City — have each failed to reach a 75 percent construction rate, Fan said.

Fan pointed out that Pingtung County in southern Taiwan has registered the lowest rate of 2.45 percent, but deputy magistrate Chung Chia-pin asserted during the meeting that all the county’s public construction projects will be kicked off by late this month as slated.

The minister said that budgets earmarked for the local governments to carry out the task will be returned to the national coffers in due process if they fail to meet the year-end deadline.

Later Friday,Chung clarified that the Pintung County’s construction rate has hit 22.34 percent — or 168 cases under construction out of a total of 752 projects.

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