The urban-rural infrastructure plan aims to promote more balanced development and boost quality of life in towns nationwide.
For Taiwan architecture scholar Lin Sheng-fong (林盛豐), the most striking difference between his homeland and the major Western nations he has visited is the quality of rural roads and facilities. “Infrastructure development is quite mature throughout countries like Germany and the U.K., but in Taiwan this is only true in major cities,” he said.
Lin, who earned a doctorate in architecture at the University of California, Berkeley, is part of a major government push to address this development disparity. He is a senior adviser to a Ministry of the Interior (MOI) project aimed at revitalizing town centers across Taiwan. “The central government is offering significant financial assistance and professional guidance to local authorities, enabling them to recruit top-notch architects and designers,” Lin said.
The MOI project is one of 10 launched under the urban-rural development portion of the Forward-looking Infrastructure Development Program (FIDP), a comprehensive initiative aimed at addressing Taiwan’s key infrastructure needs over the next 30 years. According to Tseng Shu-cheng (曾旭正), deputy minister of the Cabinet-level National Development Council (NDC), the urban-rural component of the FIDP prioritizes infrastructure investment in midlevel cities and towns nationwide with the core objective of raising quality of life. By enhancing public spaces and providing better services for residents, it is also expected to help address population declines in these communities, he added.
The initiative is also geared toward creating public service centers in indigenous communities such as the Atayal tribe in northern Taiwan’s Hsinchu County. (Photo by Huang Chung-hsin)
Ten Objectives
Besides rejuvenating municipal centers, the urban-rural plan seeks to improve parking; boost road quality; develop locally oriented industrial parks; foster local cultural resources; renovate school facilities; refurbish public service centers; and create quality leisure and sports environments. While these efforts will target locations nationwide, the plan also features two projects designed to address the needs of specific ethnic communities. One is the Hakka Romantic Avenue, a tourism promotional initiative aimed at stimulating cultural and economic revitalization in Hakka villages along parts of Provincial Highway No. 3 in northern and central Taiwan. The other seeks to empower indigenous tribal villages, typically located in remote or mountainous areas, through building public facilities that offer services ranging from digital education to long-term care.
These 10 project areas, finalized following extensive discussions between central and local government officials, provide solutions for regional economies based on local development needs. “The urban-rural plan tries to solve issues that are major concerns for local authorities, but not covered by other components of the FIDP,” Tseng said.
A total of NT$35 billion (US$1.2 billion) has been allocated for the projects through 2018. According to the deputy minister, while many of the objectives are not new, the urban-rural development plan will ensure that identified issues are addressed promptly and cost-effectively.
Major emphasis will be placed on upgrading and refurbishing existing infrastructure rather than establishing new facilities. For instance, road network improvements will focus on raising the quality and durability of current routes rather than building new ones. Likewise, projects for the development of locally oriented industrial parks will seek to boost utilization rates and expand facilities and services at existing sites, while cultural infrastructure programs will prioritize retrofitting buildings such as museums and concert halls.
Local Lifestyles
Chen Teng-chin (陳登欽), director-general of the Department of Cultural Resources under the Ministry of Culture (MOC), said the cultural development and revitalization projects exemplify the breadth of the urban-rural infrastructure plan. “They don’t just focus on the restoration of historical sites, as was the case in the past, but seek to showcase, rekindle and enrich local cultural traditions,” he said.
For instance, at Lungshan Temple in Lugang Township of central Taiwan’s Changhua County, the MOC is seeking to work with local officials on reviving the intangible cultural asset of nanguan music. This style of music was once regularly performed at the place of worship, a national historic site. “Our proposed promotional strategies include staging regular nanguan contests at the temple and making the genre part of the school curriculum in the area,” Chen said.
Similarly, the official described the architecture preservation initiatives in the urban-rural development plan as unprecedented in Taiwan. Under the program, funding will be made available for the conservation and restoration of structures not covered by existing regulations because they are privately owned or were built comparatively recently. The new measures will apply to buildings that are at least 50 years old and deemed historically or culturally significant to local communities. “The plan will help protect buildings that form part of an area’s collective memory, like houses, movie theaters, or medical clinics where many townspeople were born,” he explained.
Investing in towns and smaller cities may help reduce their aging trends by encouraging young people to remain instead of relocating to the nation’s larger metropolises. (Photo by Chin Hung-hao)
Synergistic Approach
According to Tseng, synergy is at the core of every aspect of the urban-rural infrastructure plan. “We want to work with local governments to ensure that each project, whether it involves renovating a performance hall or repairing a road, is viewed in the context of its wider impact on community rejuvenation,” he said.
This systematic approach is particularly apparent in efforts to transform town centers. Under the plan, municipal center revitalization will be carried out in each of Taiwan’s three county-level cities as well as in one town or district in each county and special municipality excluding Taipei. Each town center project is earmarked up to NT$300 million (US$10 million) in funding, the NDC said.
Some of these initiatives are already underway. Taipei-based architect Wu Sheng-ming (吳聲明) has been commissioned by Yunlin County Government in western Taiwan to create blueprints for the revitalization of Dounan, the county’s third largest town with a population of some 45,000. Spanning 1.6 hectares around Taiwan Railways Administration’s Dounan Station, Wu’s redesign aims to improve quality of life and boost tourism.
“In the past, the focus was on the beautification of individual spots. Now it’s about reshaping the central area of a town as a whole,” he said. “We want to create an environment featuring comfortable greenery and footpaths as well as a big square that strengthens the connectivity between local places of interest.”
The urban-rural infrastructure projects for renovating school facilities and public service centers likewise seek to boost community engagement and quality of life through the creative remodeling of existing resources. The school refurbishment program will boost public access to campuses that are being underutilized due to Taiwan’s consistently low birthrates, with unused classrooms set to be turned into multipurpose learning and activity centers and made available to residents of nearby communities. Under the service center renovation project, the MOI will first reinforce around 930 public buildings such as township offices nationwide to ensure they are earthquake-resistant. These structures will then offer child care, digital education programs, long-term care and other services, transforming them into focal points for local communities.
According to Tseng, the urban-rural infrastructure component will achieve substantial and visible results in a comparatively short time because it is being implemented via a vast number of small-scale civil engineering tasks. “In the past, the government tended to focus investment on large cities, but now it’s time to pay serious attention to smaller ones.”
Write to Oscar Chung at mhchung@mofa.gov.tw