A world-class stadium will be built in Kaohsiung before the opening of the 2009 World Games in the city, acting Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) said yesterday.
The acting mayor said that he is confident that Kaohsiung will be an exemplary host and that Taiwan will be proud.
Speaking to Taiwanese media immediately after receiving the flag of the World Games from International World Games Association chairman Ron Froehlich at the closing ceremony of the 2005 Games, Chen said that hosting big events like the World Games is a demonstration of a city's international competitiveness.
Chen, who led a 400-member delegation from Kaohsiung to the host city of Duisburg for the 2005 World Games, said that members of the Kaohsiung team, including officials from the Kaohsiung City Government, have picked up valuable tips on hosting the World Games.
Noting that preparations have already begun, Chen said that the Kaohsiung City Government plans to build the main stadium for the 2009 World Games with NT$5.35 billion (US$168.77 million) that has been allocated by the central government as a special project.
The next World Games will be in Kaohsiung July 16 to July 26 in 2009, with over 3,200 athletes from 90 countries around the world taking part in more than 30 events.
The main stadium, to be located at an abandoned naval base in Tsoying (左營), Kaohsiung City, will seat 50,000 and have a 400m track-and-field competition arena.
The Kaohsiung City Government has sponsored three workshops for international bidders, builders and contractors, Chen said, adding that contracts for the development of the main stadium and other peripheral facilities will be signed by the end of this year and the winning bidders should begin their designs early next year.
Groundbreaking for the stadium is scheduled to begin in July next year and construction will start in 2007, with the facility expected to be finished by January 2009, Chen said.
The World Games is a global athletic competition of sports not included in the Olympic Games. It will be the largest-ever international sports event held in Taiwan.
Seven of the 17 NT$10 million (US$311,604) winning receipts from the November-December uniform invoice lottery remain unclaimed as of today, the Ministry of Finance said, urging winners to redeem their prizes by May 5. The reminder comes ahead of the release of the winning numbers for the January-February lottery tomorrow. Among the unclaimed receipts was one for a NT$173 phone bill in Keelung, while others were for a NT$5,913 purchase at Costco in Taipei's Neihu District (內湖), a NT$49 purchase at a FamilyMart in New Taipei City's Tamsui District (淡水), and a NT$500 purchase at a tea shop in New Taipei City's
Taiwanese officials were shown the first of 66 F-16V fighter jets purchased by Taiwan from the United States, the Ministry of National Defense said yesterday, adding the aircraft has completed an initial flight test and is expected to be delivered later this year. A delegation led by Deputy Minister of National Defense Hsu Szu-chien (徐斯儉) visited Lockheed Martin’s F-16 C/D Block 70 (also known as F-16V) assembly line in South Carolina on March 16 to view the aircraft. The jet will undergo a final acceptance flight in the US before being delivered to Taiwan, the
Deliveries of delayed F-16V jets are expected to begin in September, Minister of National Defense Wellington Koo (顧立雄) said today, after senior defense officials visited the US last week. The US in 2019 approved a US$8 billion sale of Lockheed Martin F-16 jets to Taiwan, a deal that would take the nation’s F-16 fleet to more than 200 jets, but the project has been hit by issues including software problems. Koo appeared today before a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, which is discussing different versions of the special defense budget this week. The committee is questioning officials today,
TALENT SCOUTING: The university is investing substantial funds in its future to bring in the kind of researchers that would keep the college internationally competitive National Taiwan University (NTU) plans to invest NT$2 billion (US$62.6 million) to launch two programs aimed at attracting and retaining top research talent, university president Chen Wen-chang (陳文章) said yesterday. The funding would support the “Palm Grove Scholars Project,” which targets academics aged 40 to 55. Up to 20 scholars would be selected, each receiving as much as NT$10 million annually, Chen said. The initiative is designed to attract leading researchers to Taiwan and strengthen NTU’s global competitiveness by fostering a more research-friendly environment and expanding international collaboration, he said. NTU is also introducing a “Hong Hu” chair grant, which would provide Palm
RSS