The National Development Council (NDC) on Monday approved a plan to invest NT$38.166 billion (US$1.37 billion) over five years to upgrade seven international commercial ports in Taiwan.
The plan proposed by the Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC) is expected to create 13,000 jobs and stimulate NT$320 billion in investment, according to NDC Deputy Minister Yu Chien-hwa.
Under the plan, to run from 2022 to 2026, the ministry will launch 29 projects at the ports of Keelung, Taipei, Taichung, Kaohsiung, Hualien, Anping, and Suao to boost capacity and turn them into green and smart international harbors, Yu said.
Wang Chin-jung, vice president of engineering at Taiwan International Ports Corp., said the company aims to boost the total container throughput of the seven ports to approximately 15.66 million-18.22 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) by 2026.
It also hopes to increase total cargo throughput at the seven ports by weight from an annual average of 1.59 billion metric tons at present to 1.80 billion metric tons by 2026, according to Wang.
The seven ports will also be developed and promoted based on their special characteristics, Wang said.
The Port of Kaohsiung, for example, is Taiwan’s largest port and the 16th-busiest container port in the world in 2020, and the company will seek to build the harbor into a leading cargo transshipment hub in the Asia Pacific, Wang said.
It hopes to increase the port’s container throughput from 9.62 million TEUs last year to 11.44 million TEUs by 2026, Wang said.
The growing Taipei Port is targeted to become a smart logistics center for automobiles, the Taichung Port will be built into a base for green energy development, and the ports of Suao, Hualien, and Anping will be developed for tourism, according to Wang.
The MOTC’s Maritime Port Bureau also plans to inject NT$9.7 billion into 33 projects to refurbish four domestic commercial ports — Budai, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu — to strengthen their competitiveness and boost tourism and economic development in their localities.
Source: CNA