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Site of former Shuinan airport transferred to Taichung city gov't

ROC Central News Agency

2007-12-22 19:33:47

    Taipei, Dec. 22 (CNA) President Chen Shui-bian presided over a ceremony held in the central Taiwan city of Taichung Saturday to mark the transference of a large plot of land in the greater Taichung area from the Air Force to the Taichung city government.

    The ceremony also represented the president's delivering on his promise to the city to transfer the plot of land -- site of the former Shuinan Airport -- to allow the municipal government to develop the land plot in the heart of the city into a modern urban center.

    At the ceremony, Taichung Mayor Jason Hu said Taichung citizens will always remember and feel grateful for Chen's benevolent decision to hand the vast plot of land over to the city government.

    Regarding the old airport as a valuable asset with which Taichung can expand into a metropolis and one of Taiwan's major transportation hubs along with the Chingchuankang airport and high-speed railway operations, Chen said he believes the city will become more and more important to the country's industrial development.

    Chen expressed hope that the old airport will be developed into a "central park" of Taichung City that will help accelerate the city's urban rejuvenation and modernization.

    Shuinan Airport was built during the period of Japanese colonial rule of the island to serve as a military airport. It was taken over after the end of World War II by the ROC Air Force, which established a logistic command center and an aviation industrial development center at the airport.

    From that time until 1980, all Taiwan-produced aircraft were manufactured and underwent tests at that airport, according to the city government. As Taichung expanded, the airport's relative location shifted from the outskirts to the center of the city. It is now situated near the Central Taiwan Science Park, Fengchia University and the Aerospace Industrial Development Corp., which designed and built Taiwan's Indigenous Defense Fighters.

    As the airport's existence was often blamed for hindering the city's land traffic and urban development, the city government kicked off efforts after the relocation of the airport facilities in 2004 to develop the place into a modern urban center that has been planned to house a university city, a trading exhibition center, a forest park, a dome-shaped stadium and an urban cultural hall.

    Vice President Annette Lu and Minister of National Defense Lee Tien-yu also attended the land transference ceremony.

    Earlier in the day, President Chen mentioned that a special team has been formed in the central government to push for the city's integration with neighboring Taichung County into a single administrative district and its upgrading to the status of special municipality.

    Chen also revealed at a conference on the greater Taichung area's development that it is very likely that Taichung City may be chosen to house the Ministry of Economic Affairs' planned institute of business research.

    He said he is increasingly confident that the central Taiwan city will become a new capital city of the country following the transference of the plot of land to the municipal government.

(By Elizabeth Hsu)

ENDITEM/Li