Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto introduced plans Friday for a new system of review for public works projects designed to reduce government spending and suspend or terminate projects that no longer meet public needs, government officials said.
Hashimoto announced the plan at a morning meeting with Cabinet ministers in charge of public works, including Construction Minister Tsutomu Kawara and Transport Minister Takao Fujii, at his official residence. The move comes after widespread criticism of a number of dam construction and other public works projects that were launched more than a decade ago and have outlasted their original objectives.
Many of these projects tend to drag on for years from planning to completion. They often face hurdles due to local opposition as well as budgetary constraints, which can cause projects to continue haltingly over years or be abandoned ultimately. Criticism of the government over its handling of public works projects intensified after authorities went ahead with a controversial plan to fill in part of Isahaya Bay in Nagasaki Prefecture, despite anticipated damage to the local ecosystem.
Critics say many of the national government's dam construction or land reclamation projects, originally designed to provide rice-growing farmland and water supplies for farms, are no longer needed at a time when authorities are urging farmers to reduce rice production. The new system, to begin in fiscal 1998, proposes to help reassess the need for projects.