2016/03/15
Ministry of National Defense Actively Strives for the Reconstruction of the Military Villages to Ensure the Co-Existence of Land Vitalization and Culture Preservation (March 15th 2016)
(Military News Agency reporter, Lin Jing-Jie, Taipei March 14th) During Legislative Yuan Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Meeting today, Director of the Political Warfare Bureau, Ministry of National Defense, Lieutenant General Wen Zhen-Guo expressed that in order to achieve the reconstruction of the villages of the retired military, the Ministry will adopt the strategies of construction before relocation and has planned the reconstruction of village bases for the settlement of retired military personnel and family. Parts of the vacated land will be utilized in conjunction with the urban development plans of the local government and community development.
During his presentation of the “Old Military Village Reconstruction Project Progress Review and Report” in the Legislative Yuan this morning, Wen Zhen-Guo made the above comments.
Wen Zhen-Guo pointed out that in the reconstruction and relocation plans of the 86 bases by Ministry of National Defense, 85 bases have been completed and delivered, offering housing for 69,373 households. Currently, the last plot to be completed, “Political Academy and Logistics Area Reconstruction Base” is located in Taipei city and expected to be completed by June this year. The completion is expected to provide settlement for another 174 households. In addition, in terms of the proceeds generated from the sales of the real estates for investment into the reconstruction projects, the current area of reconstruction is 1,060 hectares and the disposition of 314 hectares has generated proceeds of 218.9 billion New Taiwan Dollars. According to the 4 stage financing provided by the Executive Yuan for the period of 1996 to 2012, the outstanding balance currently stands at 35.2 billion New Taiwan Dollars, and the financing loans are expected to be cleared by 2019 and the special budget of 313.8 billion is expected to be cleared by 2022.
Wen Zhen-Guo stressed that in order to accelerate the handling of the reconstruction land, there are currently 746 hectares of land available, amongst which 446 hectares are set aside for local government development of public utilities and non-urban development, leaving 300 hectares available for residential purposes. At the same time, in response to the markets and in conjunction with the sales restrictions on large areas and high value areas, they will continue to inspect the plans and actual fund allocation to ensure the vitalization of the land and to meet the targets of clearing the loans.
Wen Zhen-Guo also further expressed that the military villages offer cultural diversity and has become a community of integrated experiences and memories, therefore during the reconstruction of the villages, the Ministry has taken care to collaborate with the local government to preserve the village cultures and has cooperated with the Ministry of Culture to establish an inter-disciplinary platform for the “National Memories Database” which offers a compilation of the narrated histories of the military villages and images, to preserve the village culture through institutional means and leave an intact preservation of the lives of the people in the past.