Among diverse municipal concerns, the encouragement of better utilization of public transportation systems and promotion of physical exercise were two top priorities addressed yesterday, as 47 mayors and city representatives from around the world shared experiences and sought solutions to these issues.
On the second day of the International Healthy Cities Conference, participating city leaders met at the City Leaders Roundtable in Taipei to continue discussions of healthy-city issues. Prior to the roundtable, mayors and city representatives signed the "2005 Taipei Healthy City Declaration" as a strong commitment to improve the physical, socio-economic and environmental health of citizens.
As the host of the roundtable, Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (
Many participating cities, including Scotland's capital Edinburgh, Copenhagen (Denmark) and Lilongwe (Malawi), addressed the importance of the establishment of public transportation and ways to encourage citizens to take good advantage of it.
Deputy Mayor of Edinburgh Steve Cardowni said the city has been trying to "get people out of their cars" and use public transport. One thing the city is planning is a "congestion-charge policy," which would require vehicles crossing the central area of the city to pay a ?2 (US$3.55) fee per day.
The policy, which is already in effect in London, was however turned down by voters in a referendum earlier this year. Cardowni said it may take years before citizens understand the benefits of the policy, but efforts to carry out the plan, as well as other measures such as park-and-ride schemes, will continue.
Morris Hanna, mayor of Marrickville in Australia, said the city has introduced "walk to work" and "walk to school" programs, encouraging people to adopt "pollution-free" and "healthy" alternatives to the sedentary lifestyle.
The "walk to school" program has also been introduced in Taipei along with the annual "Care Free Month" event. Other cities like Lilongwe have adopted similar alternative concepts.
Besides the transportation concern, Deputy Mayor of Turku (Finland), Kaija Hartiala, raised the physical-exercise issue. Taking her city as an example, Hartiala said that politicians have been promoting the exercise energetically. Good cooperation between the city government, community members and universities has successfully persuaded those who declined to do exercise out of "laziness" to start doing it for fun and get more healthy at the same time.
Ma agreed that "the laziness of people" is the most difficult part to overcome when promoting physical exercise in any city. He said that is why it is important for a city to make exercise facilities accessible and affordable to attract more people to enjoy exercising in a more convenient way.
"So the Taipei City Government has remodeled many community swimming pools and built jogging paths and bikeways around the city, so that there won't be any excuses for citizens not to exercise," he said.
The Healthy Cities Conference ends today.
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) today issued a sea warning for Typhoon Fung-wong effective from 5:30pm, while local governments canceled school and work for tomorrow. A land warning is expected to be issued tomorrow morning before it is expected to make landfall on Wednesday, the agency said. Taoyuan, and well as Yilan, Hualien and Penghu counties canceled work and school for tomorrow, as well as mountainous district of Taipei and New Taipei City. For updated information on closures, please visit the Directorate-General of Personnel Administration Web site. As of 5pm today, Fung-wong was about 490km south-southwest of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan's southernmost point.
Almost a quarter of volunteer soldiers who signed up from 2021 to last year have sought early discharge, the Legislative Yuan’s Budget Center said in a report. The report said that 12,884 of 52,674 people who volunteered in the period had sought an early exit from the military, returning NT$895.96 million (US$28.86 million) to the government. In 2021, there was a 105.34 percent rise in the volunteer recruitment rate, but the number has steadily declined since then, missing recruitment targets, the Chinese-language United Daily News said, citing the report. In 2021, only 521 volunteers dropped out of the military, the report said, citing
A magnitude 5.3 earthquake struck Kaohsiung at 1pm today, the Central Weather Administration said. The epicenter was in Jiasian District (甲仙), 72.1km north-northeast of Kaohsiung City Hall, at a depth of 7.8km, agency data showed. There were no immediate reports of damage. The earthquake's intensity, which gauges the actual effects of a temblor, was highest in Kaohsiung and Tainan, where it measured a 4 on Taiwan's seven-tier intensity scale. It also measured a 3 in parts of Chiayi City, as well as Pingtung, Yunlin and Hualien counties, data showed.
Nearly 5 million people have signed up to receive the government’s NT$10,000 (US$322) universal cash handout since registration opened on Wednesday last week, with deposits expected to begin tomorrow, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. After a staggered sign-up last week — based on the final digit of the applicant’s national ID or Alien Resident Certificate number — online registration is open to all eligible Taiwanese nationals, foreign permanent residents and spouses of Taiwanese nationals. Banks are expected to start issuing deposits from 6pm today, the ministry said. Those who completed registration by yesterday are expected to receive their NT$10,000 tomorrow, National Treasury
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