Council for Economic Planning & Development to seek ways to resolve THSRC’s problems, and that if the government received a formal request for funding, ’we would consider it carefully’.
Given that a presidential election is due next March, the government is keen to keep the project moving forward, and Siew stated on June 8 that it was ’critical’ for Taiwan’s future. Transport Minister Lin Feng-chong has also pledged support. But the stakes are being raised, and it is clear that rival interests are at work.
Chunghwa High Speed Rail Consortium, which was based on Japanese shinkansen technology and lost out to THSRC in the concession bidding, is seeking some form of participation. The group includes China Development Corp, which is partly financed by the governing Kuomintang party, and may be willing to help with funding. But the price of support could be a switch to shinkansen rolling stock rather than the Eurotrain marriage of ICE and TGV. Ing has shown no sign of giving way, but there is no doubt the Japanese are lobbying very hard. A decision on the rolling stock is now expected in September, and contracts for 10 lots of civil works are to be let by the end of November.
With tense negotiations set to continue through the summer, it looks as if the clock will be stopped until a final deal is hammered out. But any delay has a price, and THSRC has warned that opening is not now likely until at least 2005.
DESPITE symbolic start-of-work ceremonies in March and April at the site of a maintenance depot and a stabling yard, plus some ground preparation works, Taiwan’s 345 km high speed line linking Taipei and Kaohsiung is making slow progress. Concessionaire Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp should soon have a clear idea of the likely cost of construction following submission of bids for civil engineering on June 11, but another deadline on June 30 may prove more telling. By then the Ministry of Transportation & Communications was to have completed 28 specific tasks, but by mid-June six were still outstanding. Several were controversial, such as demolishing buildings on the alignment of the high speed line, and the chances of them all being finished on time looked slim.
Under the terms of the concession, THSRC was entitled to pull out of the deal if the government failed to meet the June 30 deadline. At a press conference on May 30, THSRC President Nita Ing moved on to the offensive, saying that the group would not abandon the project, but insisting that the government deliver its share of the bargain.
Ing is concerned about funding for the NT$400bn project, which at present rests on obtaining a NT$280bn loan at low interest rates from the government, plus NT$120bn of syndicated loans from Taiwanese banks. Responding to Ing’s comments, Premier Vincent Siew said on June 7 that he had told the Council for Economic Planning & Development to seek ways to resolve THSRC’s problems, and that if the government received a formal request for funding, ’we would consider it carefully’.
Given that a presidential election is due next March, the government is keen to keep the project moving forward, and Siew stated on June 8 that it was ’critical’ for Taiwan’s future. Transport Minister Lin Feng-chong has also pledged support. But the stakes are being raised, and it is clear that rival interests are at work.
Chunghwa High Speed Rail Consortium, which was based on Japanese shinkansen technology and lost out to THSRC in the concession bidding, is seeking some form of participation. The group includes China Development Corp, which is partly financed by the governing Kuomintang party, and may be willing to help with funding. But the price of support could be a switch to shinkansen rolling stock rather than the Eurotrain marriage of ICE and TGV. Ing has shown no sign of giving way, but there is no doubt the Japanese are lobbying very hard. A decision on the rolling stock is now expected in September, and contracts for 10 lots of civil works are to be let by the end of November.
With tense negotiations set to continue through the summer, it looks as if the clock will be stopped until a final deal is hammered out. But any delay has a price, and THSRC has warned that opening is not now likely until at least 2005.
