PDF(2.7mb) - 國家政策研究基金會

104 Taiwan Development Perspectives 2009
seaport at nearby Wuchi. There is an airport at nearby
Chingchuankang. Central Taiwan Science Park is located
in Taichung, which also accommodates the Central
Region Office of the Executive Yuan and an ultramodern
commercial center. As a matter of fact, it will
be easy to build on what the area now already has to
create the special municipality which promises to be an
internationalized city.
There should be no more delay in creating the new
municipality. Its founding now would make it easier to
create the two metropolitan areas in Taipei and Kaohsiung
to get President Ma’s master plan more than half
done.
IV. Difficulties Encountered
Many difficulties lie ahead of the proposed special
municipality of Taichung.
One difficulty lies in the fact that there will be only
one chief executive in the new municipality rather
two in the current self-governing bodies. Furthermore,
the councils of the city and the county have to shed
more than 50 seats, if they are merged. The shrinking
lebensraum of local politicians makes them resent the
merger. They may be forced to write off their long political
investment.
Other counties also resent Taichung becoming
Taiwan’s first metropolitan area. Taipei County is opposed
to it, in particular. It is Taiwan’s most populous
county, whose magistrate Chou His-wei was promised
its special municipality before the change of government
in May 2008. With a population of 3.82 million,
the county was given authorization to start preparations
for the creation of a special municipality in 2007. A city
or county, according to the Local Government Act, can
be made a special municipality if its population exceeds
two million. Chou threatened to resign as magistrate, if
the merger of the city and county of Taichung should
take place before his county was made a special municipality.
Local potentates in Kaohsiung also do not
want Taichung to take precedence. The special municipality
of Kaohsiung will be much smaller in scale than
the new metropolitan area of Taichung, which will have
a population of 3.6 million. These leaders want the merger
of their special municipality and the county of
Kaohsiung before Taichung is made Taiwan’s first metropolis.
Still another difficulty is that time is running short
for Taichung to be made a special municipality. President
Ma’s master plan requires the special municipality
of Taichung to be inaugurated on December 25, 2010. A
bill for its inauguration has just been passed by the Executive
Yuan. It will be referred to the Legislative Yuan
for action. Moreover, all the necessary bylaws have yet
to be drafted. If inaugurated on time without these bylaws
adopted, the new special municipality cannot
function properly for lack of enough staff and a sufficient
budget. The chances are that these bylaws can all
be enacted before the end of 2010.
Last but not least, the creation of the special municipality
of Taichung is being done from the top down.
The proposal for the creation was made by the Ministry
of the Interior in accordance with President Ma’s master
plan. No local authorities were consulted for how to
go about the inauguration of their new special municipality.
No local opinion was reflected on the planning
for the proposed metropolis. It will be very difficult to
have the new metropolis created without the support of
the fully consulted local authorities.
The aforesaid difficulties can be summed up as a
political problem. It needs a political solution. Political
opposition to the creation of Taichung as Taiwan’s first
metropolis has to be removed. Lawmakers have to be
urged to adopt all the necessary laws as soon as practicable.
V. Recommendation
One way to overcome the difficulties encountered
in merging the city and county of Taichung to form a
special municipality is to set up a Committee for Demarcation
of Administrative Districts, where all matters