Taiwan Today

Premier Liu Chao-shiuan has approved a plan to develop outlying Kinmen as a high-end duty-free shopping island, attracting mainland tourists who can afford luxury goods. After the establishment of direct cross-strait transport, post, and trade links at the end of 2008, the economic development of Kinmen and Matsu islands was affected, so the Council for Economic Planning and Development under the Executive Yuan proposed a “Kinmen and Matsu Mid- and Long-term Economic Development Plan.” This plan will become the guiding principle for a “Third Period Offshore Islands Development Plan” (2011- 2014) for Kinmen County and Lienchiang County, and will be promoted by the Executive Yuan’s Offshore Islands Development Committee. According to the plan, the Kinmen-Matsu region will be a pilot project and model for “border trade” and cross-strait collaboration based on mutual trust in areas such as tourism and medical treatment, so that cooperative cross-strait industry and policies can proceed with reduced resistance. As the development of industry in Kinmen and Matsu requires negotiations with the mainland, related issues will be taken up in talks between the Straits Exchange Foundation and the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait. The unique battleground scenery of Kinmen and Matsu will add to their tourist attractions. The CEPD hopes to fully draw on the military sites, Minnan culture, ecotourism, peach blossoms and the geographic proximity to the mainland to develop tourism. Kinmen will be designated an island for international tourism and leisure, health and medical tourism, and high-end duty-free shopping; Matsu will be developed as an international tourism and leisure island. In the short-term Kinmen will provide a duty-free shopping center along the lines of Hong Kong and establish itself as a high-end duty-free shopping island. In the mid-term it will set up a completely duty-free shopping environment, so that the whole island will be duty free. Plans will be implemented by the Ministry of Transportation and Communications, the Ministry of Finance, and the Kinmen County Government. As to becoming a center for health tourism, a “silver-haired citizens village” will be promoted, as a test of cross-strait medical tourism and an impetus for the upgrading of Kinmen Hospital to a regional hospital, in order to provide long-term health care. Regarding international tourism and leisure, mainland and Taiwan tourists will be the primary sources, and not passengers in transit through the “mini-three-links.” In the short-term the integration of the promotion of Kinmen Kaoliang liquor with tourism will be strengthened. In the mid-term Kinmen will be developed into a “moving military museum,” and the two sides of the strait together will apply to add it to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization’s world heritage list. International tourism and leisure in Matsu will be developed through alternative tourism and small island ecotourism, as well as military field life camps to promote “holidays oriented toward spiritual wellbeing.” (THN)