TAIPEI: In the wake of Typhoon Morakot, Taiwan's deadliest storm in half a century, the government is asking private companies to assist in the island's reconstruction.

The private sector is being asked to help restore employment, rebuild homes, schools and assist the tourist industry, "Premier" Liu Chao-shiuan said in a statement released by the Government Information Office.

Disaster victims whose homes were destroyed have been offered a number of programs to help them to buy, build or rent new homes, or even to move into prefabricated homes on a temporary basis, the office said.

Taiwan's biggest banking group declared last week members would waive mortgages of those who lost homes or their land in the mudslides caused by the storm.

At least 291 people were killed and at last report, 387 were still missing, after Morakot pummeled Taiwan August 6-9.

More than 6,000 people were in 54 shelters. The number displaced when towns and villages were evacuated is almost 25,000 , the government said yesterday.

A team from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs is expected in Taiwan within days.

Taiwan's economy is expected to contract 3.52 percent this quarter as a result of the hammering the island took from Morakot, the statistics bureau reported last week.

The government has also taken a battering in the aftermath of the typhoon. The government has been accused of responding too slowly to the urgent need for reconstruction.

Support for Taiwan leader Ma Ying-jeou crashed to 29 percent, from 66 percent when he took office in May last year and 52 percent at his first anniversary, according to a survey last week conducted by the United Daily News.

China Daily/CNA

(HK Edition 08/25/2009 page2)