Shanghai, Singapore spur Mayor Ma

Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) hopes to help Taipei compete with regional centers in Shanghai and Singapore by making the capital city more business friendly.

The strategy includes encouraging the establishment of the knowledge-based park in Shilin (士林) district and further expansion of high-tech industrial parks in Neihu (內湖) and Nankang (南港) districts.

In addition, the mayor says the city will make it easier to set up shop.

"To facilitate the northern high-tech belt's development, the city government has put efforts into getting rid of all red tape and relaxing regulations to allow more industries to enter," Ma said.

Ma also said that he also plan-ned to build the city into a center for national medical facilities, since nine out of the nation's 16 medical centers are located in Taipei.

In addition, he wants to make the city a biotechnology center, since 49 percent of the nation's bio-tech research is conducted in Taipei.

The mayor said that he's determined to nurture the succes of companies in the high-tech sector that are located in these parks by maintaining regular communications with executive in an effort to help them solve problems related to the city government.

Ma said that the Hsinyi district in eastern Taipei will be expanded to lure more international conferences. Already boasting five-star hotels, and the World Trade Center, the district has made a good start.

"We plan to invite contractors to build more business hotels, ranging from three-star to four-star, to offer more choices for business people," Ma said.

The Taipei Sports Dome (巨蛋體育場) that is scheduled to be built on the site of the old Sungshan tobacco factory (松山菸廠), will function as a 40,000-seat baseball stadium and a multi-purpose conference venue during the off season, the mayor said.

"The stadium will have a 700 to 800-booth capacity for exhibitions," Ma said.

"We are competing fiercely with Shanghai and Suzhou," Ma said.

The mayor is pushing for the Hsinyi line of the Mass Rapid Transport system to be completed by 2009. It will be able to transport 180,000 passengers per day to the district.

To build Taipei into a tourist destination, Ma said that the city government is reviving the Peitou (北投) district's hot-spring business by organizing international hot-spring festivals, which brought in some 95,000 tourists last year.

The mayor also mentioned the city's efforts at putting the government online and in promoting Internet literacy.

He added that 72 percent of the city's residents frequently use the Internet.

"I'm confident that Taipei will become more livable and attractive to international businesses than Shanghai and Singapore," Ma told reporters after giving a speech to board members of the Chinese National Association of Industry and Commerce.