Horizontal Policy Coordination in TSP

Section 5.5 explained the relationship among planning actors at both the central and local level, this section will discuss the horizontal coordination within central and local levels.

5.6.1 Horizontal coordination at the central level- the TSP Administration’s relationship with relevant central agencies

With regard to coordination with the Ministry o f Interior (MOI), responsible for supervising land use planning at the central level, no big problem was found in the research. In this case, the role o f the MOI was like a planning inspector that offered counsel rather than approval. The MOI might ask for an amendment to the project submitted to it, but what it was concerned with was the content o f the plan; not only the judgement o f objection or agreement. On the other hand, the TSP Administration experienced more difficulties in relation to the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA). Most land in TSP had been farming land and in low density use which had been an advantage in its bid for site selection in 1995 (see Section 5.3.2). However, farming land comes under the category o f agricultural use and there was inevitably an impact resulted from its development on the surrounding ecological system. According to planning procedure, the EPA has the authority to monitor the TSP’s development and it can even inspect the water and electricity supply in TSP.

During development o f TSP, the EPA was concerned about environmental issues and asked for several meetings. The STSP Administration, perceived the actions o f the EPA as more or less challenges, though it also admitted the EPA’s underlying intention was to assist rather than to hinder (Interview with Specialist Chief Chen, STSP Administration in September 2006).

From interviews with planning actors, the study discovered several inter-departmental interactions in relation to TSP at the central level. The first concern was the archaeology site found under the construction o f the TSP (Tsang, C., 1996).33 Due to the negligent site investigation for TSP, an unexpected archaeology site was found in TSP in 1995 and the discovery put a stop to further construction until a survey o f the site had been carried out. In order to preserve the historical treasure, a huge amount o f money was needed to excavate and preserve it. However, as its discovery had not been anticipated, the expectation and preservation amount had not been included in the development budget. As a result o f this incident, the construction process was brought to a halt at the request o f the Legislative Yuan until a resolution to the problem was found. The problem was not solved until the Premier o f Executive Yuan intervened and offer a special budget for the heritage excavation (Interview with Specialist C hief Chen).

Another serious problem was the accusation by local farmers that flooding resulting from the TSP’s construction, had damaged their crops. Commenting on this, Specialist C hief Chen, the STSP Administration, said:

‘Our opinion was that in fa ct there was a regular flooding in this area every year. Importantly, there was lack o f evidence that the flooding had resulted from the construction. However, investors in TSP would not want flooding to affect their factories. To resolve the flooding problem, it required drainage work which is the responsibility o f the Water Resource Agency under the

35 The unexpected site contained many ancient objects dating back to 2800 B.C.E.

M inistry o f Economic Affairs (MOEA). We also sought the NSC s help report to report the matter to the Executive Yuan. ’

Eventually the Executive Yuan dealt with the problem and the STSP Administration obtained a special budget from the central government to initiate drainage work, so the flooding problem would no longer appear in TSP.

The aforementioned incidents suggest that the Executive Yuan is the final decision maker in difficult issues but it is also worth noting the role o f the NSC. In the governmental hierarchy, the STSP Administration is directly subordinate to the NSC.

During the course o f the field work, it was found that although the NSC assisted STSP Administration by reporting the flooding incident to the Executive Yuan in order to find an ultimate solution to the problem, it was in fact the STSP Administration which mostly communicated with other central agencies. Once there was a need for coordination with other departments, the NSC provided very limited assistance and it was the STSP Administration that talked to relevant authorities through formal or informal meetings in order to reach a consensus. The STSP Administration also reported to the CEPD if there were difficulties being encountered in reaching a resolution in inter-departmental communication.

5.6.2 Coordination between the STSP Administration and Tainan County Government

When interviewed with Specialist C hief Chen, STSP Administration, she contended that the STSP Administration had had a conflict free relationship with Tainan County Government since successful development o f TSP was a common desire o f both sides.

It is no surprising that Tainan County Government had won the STSP project because

it had promised to offer a huge amount o f undeveloped land for TSP development since it had been looking for a means to drive the local economy. Hence, the STSP Administration experienced cooperation from Tainan County Government. Not only the local planning authorities, but relevant land use planning units at the central level, such as the Environmental Protection Administration and Construction and Planning Agency (CPA) had provided their advisory support during the land use planning process, according to Specialist Chief Chen, STSP A dm inistration..

The development o f TSP had obtained necessary assistance from various sectors in general, yet inevitably some problems occurred during the making o f TSP District Plan due to different concepts. While Tainan County Government focused on planning land use in the District Plan making, the STSP Administration concentrated on the development o f the science park. As described in previous paragraphs, the local planning authority was affected by continuing pressures from local interest and political groups. As a result o f this pressure, there were some delays and changes to development. For instance, the District Plan had been submitted (to CPA) in 1997, but the Regional Planning Committee (RPC), CPA had not discussed this plan until 2000, as there were differing opinions among towns. To satisfy local needs, the areas o f District Plan had been increased from 1000 hectares to 1900 hectares and then to 3299 hectares (see Section 5.5.2). The local Planning authority had taken a long time to coordinate the diverse local requests. Although a decision was eventually reached by the RPC, when the new Magistrate o f Tainan County took office, he had different ideas about the plan. All those above factors considerably delayed confirmation o f the District Plan. Specialist C hief Chen said:

‘...we were not there to judge the D istrict Plan but thought its size was