As populations and industries gravitate toward cities in the process of globalization, some cities grow and their interaction with other cities increase constantly. Meanwhile, other cities cannot successfully get on track with globalization and are thus marginalized. Globalization causes global economic and urban networks to become more closely intertwined. Cities that have command and control functions in this network are "world cities." A global urban system takes shape among these world cities on the basis of their different global economic, political or social functions. A scholar in regional economies, John Friedmann, divides world cities into four categories: core-primary cities, core-secondary cities, semi-periphery primary cities and semi-periphery secondary cities. Among Taiwan's cities, only Taipei ranks among these categories -- as a semi-periphery secondary city. Taiwan's other cities are all in the periphery.
Neither the current nor the previous government's urban-development policies have been able to grasp how important it is for cities to internationalize, and resources are still allocated based on considerations of shrinking the developmental differences between the north and south and between the cities and the countryside. These projects are all meant to win votes.
Two main phenomena of the globalization process are the formation of "extended metropolitan regions" and "mega cities." These phenomena are very obvious in Taiwan, with production, consumption and social capital concentrating in Taipei, Taichung and Kaohsiung. Taipei has already become a mega city, while Taichung, Kaohsiung and Tainan are gradually becoming extended metropolitan regions. Following the future completion of the high-speed railway and the expanded plans for high-speed communications and information, the distance between these three regions will shrink further and they will coalesce into an "urban corridor." The development of this corridor is relevant to whether Taiwanese cities will be able to join the international body of cities, thus improving their status and function in this body of metropolises. We should plan to improve the efficiency of national-resource allocation to strengthen the competitiveness of the urban corridor so it can quickly join the international metropolitan network. This calls for a comprehensive review of the policies that have been emphasized in the past, i.e. the encouragement of balanced regional development.
Based on this reasoning, I call firstly for the urgent developing of the urban regions of Taipei, Taichung and Kaohsiung.
Secondly, I call for substituting the concept of balanced development of regions with the concept of developing the urban corridor by concentrating the NT$1.2 trillion allocated for public construction for the next six years on the three major city regions.
Thirdly, the short-term development of these three regions should be concentrated on the Taipei region (centering on Taipei and extending to Keelung in the north and Taoyuan-Hsinchu in the south) in order to benefit from the conglomeration-of-economy effect and improved competitiveness, so as to enhance international integration. In the long term, the goal should be to upgrade the other two urban giants to form an urban corridor.
Fourthly, hypothesizing that government reorganization and the adjustment of administrative divisions are hopeless, I suggest the establishment of Regional Construction Initiation Committees, one each for northern, central and southern Taiwan, in accordance with the regulations in the Regional Planning Law. These committees would oversee planning, development and construction in the three major urban regions.
Yang Chung-hsin is a professor in the Graduate Institute of Landscape Architecture at Chinese Culture University.
Translated by Francis Huang and Perry Svensson
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