Incumbent Kaohsiung Mayor Frank Hsieh (
"The `Kaohsiung era' has come," Hsieh declared at his mayoral inauguration ceremony, held at Kaohsiung City Hall yesterday morning.
"Kaohsiung City will become an economic and trade city, as well as a garden city," Hsieh said in his inauguration speech. "This city is ready to get on the international stage," he said.
Hsieh said that being a hard-working mayor is the only way to express his gratitude to all of Kaohsiung citizens. In the future, the city will strive toward its goal of becoming a port city of free commerce and trade once the draft bill entitled "Kaohsiung as a municipal port city of commerce and trade" (高雄經貿自治港市條例草案) is officially passed by the Legislative Yuan.
The draft bill has already proceeded to the Legislative Yuan for review.
"Facing fierce international competition, Kaohsiung must think about how to maintain its position as the world's leading container port," Hsieh said. "It must also think about how to take the initiative in order to gain the upper hand once direct links across the Taiwan Strait are fully opened," he said.
Hsieh also named most of the heads of the city's bureaus and departments yesterday. Surprisingly, former National Police Administration director-general Yao Kao-chiao (
The KMT's Yao switched to Hsieh's camp right before the mayoral election and was later expelled by his party.
It's also a surprise that Hsieh appointed controversial Wu Meng-te (吳孟德) as head of the city's Bureau of Urban Development.
Wu is former director of the city's Bureau of Public Works. He was forced to resign in April after he angered resident mainlanders by saying that massive flooding last year was brought about due to the influx of mainlanders into the city.
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Temperatures are forecast to drop steadily as a continental cold air mass moves across Taiwan, with some areas also likely to see heavy rainfall, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. From today through early tomorrow, a cold air mass would keep temperatures low across central and northern Taiwan, and the eastern half of Taiwan proper, with isolated brief showers forecast along Keelung’s north coast, Taipei and New Taipei City’s mountainous areas and eastern Taiwan, it said. Lows of 11°C to 15°C are forecast in central and northern Taiwan, Yilan County, and the outlying Kinmen and Lienchiang (Matsu) counties, and 14°C to 17°C
STEERING FAILURE: The first boat of its class is experiencing teething issues as it readies for acceptance by the navy, according to a recent story about rudder failure The Hai Kun (海鯤), the nation’s first locally built submarine, allegedly suffered a total failure of stern hydraulic systems during the second round of sea acceptance trials on June 26, and sailors were forced to manually operate the X-rudder to turn the submarine and return to port, news Web site Mirror Daily reported yesterday. The report said that tugboats following the Hai Kun assisted the submarine in avoiding collisions with other ships due to the X-rudder malfunctioning. At the time of the report, the submarine had completed its trials and was scheduled to begin diving and surfacing tests in shallow areas. The X-rudder,
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