Expanding the MRT system connecting Taipei City and County to the east to neighboring Keelung City is imperative to bolstering regional development, Vice President Vincent Siew (蕭萬長) said yesterday.
Denying that it was a campaign to win votes, Siew said President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration would push for the expansion of the Taipei MRT system via the city’s northeastern suburbs of Nangang (南港) and Sijhih (汐止) toward Keelung City.
“An expanded MRT system is necessary for the integration of Taipei City, Taipei County and Keelung City in the future,” Siew said while addressing the opening of the annual conference on regional development of northern Taiwan.
Quoting Kenichi Ohmae, Japanese management guru who coined the term “M-shaped society” and author of The Borderless World, Siew said globalization does not only involve nations competing against nations, but also cities against cities.
The integration of metropolises is also a world trend, he said.
Siew said the Committee on Northern Taiwan Regional Development was established in 2004 under the leadership of then-Taipei mayor Ma to push regional development.
He said that although the eight northern cities and counties — Taipei City, Taipei County, Keelung City, Yilan County, Taoyuan County, Hsinchu City, Hsinchu County and Miaoli County — constitute only one-fourth of the nation’s total area, the aggregate number of residents make up about half of the nation’s population and contribute 65 percent to national tax revenues.
“The development of northern Taiwan has led the development of central, eastern and southern Taiwan,” Siew said.
He said economies of scale were critical to economic development, but they could also hinder growth if the scale was too big.
“An economy that is the right size is the best way to development, and today’s superpowers — including the US, Japan and China — have all strived toward that direction,” he said.
Mayors and county chiefs of the eight northern cities and counties signed a joint statement upon the conclusion of the conference, hoping to further facilitate regional development through cooperation between the central and local governments.
RSS