The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) began packing up its staff and documents yesterday -- including a 3m-high statue of Sun Yat-sen in the lobby -- in preparation for its downsizing move to Bade Road.
The party sold its big headquarters opposite the Presidential Office Building in March and will officially settle in its new location on Monday. A housewarming party is scheduled for Wednesday.
While admitting to being somewhat reluctant to move, KMT Secretary-General Chan Chun-po (
PHOTO: WANG YI-SUNG, TAIPEI TIMES
"We do feel sad about leaving this place. But moving from this luxurious building to a plain office is a necessary transition, to demonstrate the KMT's resolve to reform," he said.
Chan said the party will occupy just three floors of its new building -- the basement, first floor and third floor -- and KMT Chairman Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) has demanded that the remodeling costs not exceed NT$10 million.
Although Ma wants a simple style for the new headquarters, he insisted on taking along the Sun statue -- an important symbol for the party that Ma has always bowed to upon entering the building.
"Without the statue, what should I bow to from now on?" Ma said.
The 12-story building on Zhongshan S Rd was built in 1995. It housed an exhibition room on the first floor, offices on the second to 10th floors, the chairman and vice chairmen's offices on the 11th floor, and meeting and banquet rooms on the 12th floor.
The party sold the site to Evergreen Corp for NT$2.3 billion in March, although the KMT's party history center will continued to be housed in the building.
Evergreen chairman Chang Jung-fa (張榮發) said at the times that his company would use the building for its various cultural foundations and businesses.
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
The New Taipei Metro's Sanyin Line and the eastern extension of the Taipei Metro's Tamsui-Xinyi Line (Red Line) are scheduled to begin operations in June, the National Development Council said today. The Red Line, which terminates at Xiangshan Station, would be connected by the 1.4km extension to a new eastern terminal, Guangci/Fengtian Temple Station, while the Sanyin Line would link New Taipei City's Tucheng and Yingge stations via Sanxia District (三峽). The council gave the updates at a council meeting reviewing progress on public construction projects for this year. Taiwan's annual public infrastructure budget would remain at NT$800 billion (US$25.08 billion), with NT$97.3
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,
RSS