(1) Developing a New Countryside

In an effort to improve the living quality in rural communities, the COA promoted environmental landscaping, strengthened the facilities in rural communities, provided infrastructure and public space for leisure activities, and improved farming environment. The COA combined production, life, and ecology to highlight the characteristic of rural communities, promoted the concept of macro-construction of community by encouraging residents to participate in overall planning and development in order to shape a fine and sound rural community. In 2004, the COA completed detailed plans for 6 communities, physical construction in 80 communities, and subsidized 27 communities in building new activity grounds.

The COA promoted diversified industrial and cultural activities in coordination with industrial activities, cultural and landscape features, folk customs and traditional festivities of the rural community to stimulate the growth of recreational and tourism industries.The COA, in 2004, sponsored 58 diversified activities in rural communities, conducted 25 workshops, subsidized the renovation of 5 farmhouses, subsidized 42 construction projects at 27 sites, and conducted 14 industrial cultural activities.

The COA has promoted land consolidation and development in rural areas in order to enhance the value of land. The COA hopes that the repair and reconstruction of farmhouses, community development, mutual assistance, pollution prevention, and beautification of the environment will upgrade rural living standards and thoroughly renew and improve the whole neighborhoods. In the year of 2004, the COA made construction plans for the initial stage of the reconstruction of 7 rural communities and constructed and constructed 2 areas, and made another improvement in 1 area after the reconstruction of rural communities.

(2) Developing of Recreational Farm and Fishing

The COA amended and promulgated 8 recreational farm related regulations in 2004,including the "Management Regulations Governing Recreational Farms Supervision, " "the Recreational Farms Building Design Guidelines," and the "Operating Guidelines for Approval of Recreational Farm's Business Plans." Major amendments included authorizing special municipality, county, and city governments to issue construction permits for development areas less than 10 hectares, increasing the percentage on the change of landuse designation for establishing recreational farms by 10%, conducting 4 sessions of lectures on recreational farms regulations throughout Taiwan and seminars on the construction of recreational farms and operation models. Totally, assisting 184 recreational farms to obtain construction permit, and 24 of them had been issued operating licenses.

For the development of recreational farms, farmers and fishermen were assisted to transform their business to recreational farms, to expedite the economic revival of farm and fishing villages. In 20004, the COA subsidized 63 towns and townships in 14 cities and counties to make plans for recreational farm and fishing park projects. Local governments of special municipality, county, and city shall jointly plan for the resources and industrial culture in towns and townships under their jurisdiction. These plans include the training of key manpower in the recreational farm, research and development of innovative recreational farm products, organizing of local recreational industrial activities, and the construction of public facilities in recreational farms.

The COA sponsored the innovative product contest in the recreational farms and fishing parks and the "Beautiful Recreational Farm" photography contest, subsidized Ilan County in organizing the "Green Exposition", and made plans for recreational farm operator to install booths at the Taipei International Travel Show and other international travel shows. Besides, the COA also used the mass media and Internet to market and promote recreational farming (http://ezgo.coa.gov.tw). Summing up the economic viability, recreational farms had attracted approximately 7 million tourists in 2004, created full-time job opportunities to around 700 people, and making approximately NT$4.5 billion business opportunity.

(3) Expanding Forest Ecotourism

The COA completed a blueprint for the national trail system, renovated 165 kilometers of trail, conducted resource surveys, sponsored outdoors trash pick-up activities, and setup a trail guide website (http://trail.forest.gov.tw) that was visited more than 100,000 times during the year. The COA has also actively promoted ecotourism by integrating the unique features of Taiwan's national forest recreation areas with the needs of the localities.

Besides planning various intensity 16 ecotourism travel routes, the COA also authorized professional organizations to appraise the itineraries, and made moderate changes on the itineraries based on the appraisal, in order to meet the requirements of different types of tourists.

The COA held 185 ecotourism activities on national forest recreation areas in order to publicize ecotourism. Also, to protect environmental quality of ecotourism, the COA also dawn up environmental monitoring regulations, reinforced patrols along 57 trails, and conducted surveys on vegetation zones, soil erosion, and soil hardness. Surveys were recorded to serve as future reference for environmental improvement.

In order to improve the quality of food and lodging in recreation areas, the COA conditionally allowed private investors to operate paid-for facilities such as food and lodgings. Private participation packages were already completed for the Alishan Guest House and the Fuyuan Forest Recreation Area. These two packages won the Golden Thumb Award in the 3rd "Private Investment in Public Construction" awarded by the Public Construction Commission of the Executive Yuan°VOutstanding Government Agency Group Award.

For the development of ecotourism, the COA selected tourist spots, food caterers, and travel agencies with an ecological business philosophy to join strategic alliances, and introduced ecotourism package tours. There were 2.6 million tourists visited forest recreation areas in 2004. The COA also printed 38 types of ecotourism guides and conducted 76 environmental education and training sessions to train community guides. There are currently 676 voluntary guides in forest ecotourism activities. The COA expects that through these guides and printed leaflets, the public will be able to enjoy the beauty of ecology and experience the wonder of forest.

(4) Assisting the Development of Local Industry Cultures

The COA sought to integrate regional agricultural resources, preserve significant rural industrial cultures, and assist the development of local industries through educational activities and sales promotions of farm and fisheries products to boost the incomes of farmers and fishermen. Farmers' groups are also encouraged to develop local specialty products with their available agricultural products, integrating with local tourist industry for the economic revival of farming villages. The COA sponsored 99 cultural activities, held 325 workshops, and sponsored the "Taipei International Travel Show" in 2004. The COA also assisted 41 groups in developing local-featured innovative specialty products and participating in several food shows of international standard. These efforts helped in upgrading the standard of local foods and local souvenirs, giving consumers a completely new impression, and also boosting the selfconfidence and the sense of achievement of farmers. The standards of local food specialty and souvenirs were upgraded with the improvement of package design. The COA conducted 91 training courses in business management and sideline proficiency to assist rural women in developing and running sideline businesses. The COA introduced the concepts of health and fine foods, improved the standards of rural cooking, which was a breakthrough in traditional cooking and created 450 job opportunities.

(5) Establishing Computerized Management Systems in Recreational Farm and Fishing

Through the supervision of the COA under the policy of assisting agricultural transformation, recreational farms flourished rapidly in the past few years. In order to prevent mixed quality of service due to the rapid development of recreational farms, the COA assisted local agricultural operators and farmers' groups in establishing an autonomous agricultural service management system in 2004 to integrate regional agricultural resources and improve the quality of public service.

Advanced information technology was used in recreational farm resource management systems to integrate information classification and value-added applications in high user-friendly service platforms, assisting agricultural operators to use simple information service tools in the hope of upgrading the industry. With this in mind the COA set up model recreational farming resource management demonstration systems in Taipei and Ilan County in 2004, and installed "Multimedia Internet Phone Public Information Kiosks" at train stations in the Taipei City, Chiaohsi, Ilan, and Luotung. These kiosks provide access to local agricultural resources and marketing services via VoIP Internet telephony and Web browsers; assisting localities to conduct regional agricultural information integration and marketing, allowing consumers and recreational farm operators to engage in real-time itinerary planning, lodging, dining, and car rental services.

At the initial stage of setting up the regional agricultural resource management systems, the COA tried it first on the integration of recreational farming resources. This system will be extended to the integration of resources in agricultural production, live, and ecology, thereby accelerating the upgrading and transformation of the traditional agriculture industry into a tertiary industry.