Defense News

(Military News Agency reporter, Lin Jing-Jie, Taipei, March 14th) During the Legislative Yuan Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee Meeting today, Minister of National Defense Gao Guang-Chi expressed that the military villages are measures taken to provide settlement for the military personnel and their families (dependents) during the hard times following the return of the National Government to Taiwan in 1949. However, due to the dilapidated facilities and increasing security issues over the years, there is a need for reconstruction and relocation of the villages to ensure the continued caretaking for the original villagers, the middle and low income people or the current military officers and officials.

Minister Gao pointed out that there were a total of 897 villages in the early days, and since the implementation of the village reconstruction plan by the Ministry of National Defense in 1980, only 348 villages have completed reconstruction by 1995 due to factors such as reconstruction methods, national property and land regulations. There are still 549 villages that have yet to complete the reconstruction.

Minister Gao stressed that since the promulgation of the “Act for Rebuilding Old Quarters for Military Dependents” in 1996, the Ministry of National Defense has actively implemented the promotion of village reconstruction under the pretext of not utilizing the public budgets, and conformed with national land development policies, urban development and infrastructure needs to implement regional planning depending on the distribution of the villages and their conditions. The Ministry has also made use of the existing land of the villages which may not be used for commercial purposes and changed the land purposes of the land in compliance with regulations to concentrate the building of residential communities and ensure the sound urban development.