Taichung, March 5 (CNA) President Chen Shui-bian presided at a ceremony marking the opening of international charter flight services at the Taichung International Airport in central Taiwan, which was recently converted from the former Chingchuankang (CCK) military air base.
The inauguration ceremony also marked the completion and service commencement of the first phase development of the Taichung International Airport -- the first of its kind in central Taiwan.
Addressing the ceremony, Chen lauded the efficient completion of the international airport's first phase development in a short period of six months as a flexing of the government's executive muscles.
Chen said the inauguration of the airport demonstrates that the administration is delivering on one of his major campaign promises in 2000 to central Taiwan residents to accelerate business and industrial development in the central part of the country.
The other two major campaign promises made by Chen to people in the region were the development of a high technology-based industrial park and the administrative merger of Taichung City and Taichung County into Taiwan's third metropolitan city after Taipei in the north and Kaohsiung in the south.