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Taichung airport plan is a case of vote
chasing
By Bert Lim 林建三
Saturday, Jul 31, 2010, Page 8
Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) traveled to central Taiwan last
Saturday to attend a groundbreaking ceremony at Taichung Airport. The idea is to
upgrade it to an international airport. Given that there are still questions
surrounding the Taoyuan Aerotropolis plan; that the issue of land expropriations
have yet to be settled; that 17 of the country’s 18 airports are operating at a
loss; and that the government wants to spend NT$10 billion (US$312.8 million) to
reduce the commute on the Taoyuan airport MRT line by 13 minutes, some suspect
that the Taichung airport upgrade is more about votes than anything else.
There has always been an element of populism and vote chasing around
infrastructure project policy in Taiwan. These projects always fall short of
expectations, frequently failing to raise national competitiveness and bringing
little benefit to the public. Over the past 15 years, the volume of investment
in public construction has fallen well below global average levels.
It is not right to say that the government neglects public construction or the
country’s infrastructure. Expenditure on such projects regularly runs to more
than 65 percent of the annual budget. In the vast majority of cases, the problem
lies instead in the lack of long-term planning or strategy. The list is a litany
of projects cobbled together by politicians with one eye fixed firmly on
potential votes. It is clear that care has been taken to make sure the list
covers as many bases as possible, encompassing as many people as it could and
making sure they are evenly distributed around the country, ensuring everyone is
kept happy. Nowhere do you see any major project of substantial economic scale.
As a result, none of them really have much of an economic or social impact.
Let’s look at this in terms of how many airports we actually need. In the days
before the high speed rail and highways, there was a case to be made for having
one airport in every county and major city, to optimize domestic air links.
However, the volume of economic activity only justifies about three, and
certainly not 18. And in the context of the Asia-Pacific region and the global
network, Taiwan really only has room for one dedicated international airport.
However, not even Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport makes the grade for an
international airport. Only 24 million people go through the airport annually, a
mere 0.81 percent of the 3 billion people who fly annually, and a far cry from
the more than 40 million passengers going through most international airports.
In terms of the annual cargo volume, Taoyuan sees less than 1.36 million tonnes,
compared with the annual global volume of 400 billion tonnes.
If the government really wants to develop Taiwan as an international flight
center, it is going to have to concentrate resources and put more investment
into the idea. We have to see more flights and more cargo volume going through
Taoyuan Airport before we can think of it in terms of a world-class airport. And
only then can we think in terms of developing other secondary international
airports to act in an auxiliary or supporting role.
The government’s initiative to upgrade Taichung airport into an international
airport is, economically speaking, a mistake, a continuation of the public
construction policy that has been followed for the last 15 years and which has
yielded poor results despite the promises made. To continue following this
policy is pure laziness. One is reminded of the vision President Ma Ying-jeou
(馬英九) talked of when he first took office, when he laid out his policy of
“deregulation and reconstruction.” I wonder if he might apply this idea to the
national infrastructure policy and give us something to hope for?
Bert Lim is president of the World Economics Society.
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