His first major task became road development. In order to fund the enormous task, Mayor Shu sought a loan from the provincial government. As the standard yearly appropriation for all public construction throughout the island is US $ 72,500,000, officials of the provincial government were astounded when Mayor Shu requested five times that amount for a single city.
建設需要經費，蘇南成開風氣之先向省府舉債，且一借就借了新台幣廿五億元；至今，市政府的負債額，仍為各縣市之冠；他又到處籌措財源、呼籲企業界樂捐，像冒險家一樣地跨過年度預算，「拿明天的錢，做今天的事」。