Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊) yesterday defended the city government’s decision to halt the opening of the tender for design proposals for a national pop music venue.
“After we publicized an on-line invitation to bidders, many experts specializing in pop music complained that we did not invite pop musicians or experts to evaluate their proposals. So we were wondering whether we should include specialists from pop music circles in the evaluation process,” Chen said.
The city government became the center of a controversy after Hsia Chu-joe (夏鑄九), a professor at National Taiwan University’s Graduate Institute of Building and Planning and one of the original evaluators, on Wednesday accused the city government of ruining the impartiality of the international bidding process.
The city government on March 9 invited international construction companies and architects to submit their designs for the nation’s first pop music and oceanic cultural center, which is to be located at Kaohsiung Harbor. The project is expected to cost NT$5 billion (US$154.3 million).
The submission closed on Monday, while the tender opening was scheduled for Tuesday. The 10 judges were scheduled to evaluate the proposals on Wednesday and yesterday before choosing five potential winning bidders.
The Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper) reported yesterday that the city government had received 137 proposals from architects in countries including Britain, the US, Italy, Spain, Russia.
However, the city government raised eyebrows by adding five pop music professionals to its list of judges on Wednesday last week and announcing that it would halt the tender opening on Tuesday.
Hsia complained to reporters that he did not know the scheduled evaluation process was canceled until he arrived in Kaohsiung via the High Speed Rail on Wednesday morning.
Hsia said the city government had caused itself a great deal of trouble by canceling the scheduled bid opening and evaluation process because many international design teams had flown in to report their ideas.
Chen said yesterday that the city government was trying to make the bidding process “more transparent.”
Chen dismissed the impact of the sudden change, saying “the procedure will only be delayed by one month.”
Palauan President Surangel Whipps Jr arrived in Taiwan last night to kick off his first visit to the country since beginning his second term earlier this year. After arriving at Taoyuan International Airport at around 6:30 pm, Whipps and his delegation were welcomed by Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍). Speaking to gathered media, the Palauan leader said he was excited and honored to be back in Taiwan on his first state visit to Taiwan since he was sworn in this January. Among those traveling with Whipps is Minister of State Gustav N. Aitaro, Public Infrastructure
President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday thanked Palau for its continued support of Taiwan's international participation, as Taipei was once again excluded from the World Health Assembly (WHA) currently taking place in Switzerland. "Palau has never stopped voicing support for Taiwan" in the UN General Assembly, the WHO and other UN-affiliated agencies, Lai said during a bilateral meeting with visiting Palau President Surangel Whipps Jr. "We have been profoundly touched by these endorsements," Lai said, praising the Pacific island nation's firm support as "courageous." Lai's remarks came as Taiwan was excluded for the ninth consecutive year from the WHA, which is being held in
RESOLUTIONS DEBATE: Taiwan’s allies said that UN and WHA resolutions cited by China and other nations ‘do not determine Taiwan’s participation in WHO activities’ A proposal to invite Taiwan to this year’s World Health Assembly (WHA) was rejected on Monday, resulting in Taipei’s absence from the annual meeting for a ninth consecutive year, although partners spoke up for Taiwan’s participation at the first day of the meeting. The first agenda item after the opening was a “two-on-two debate” on a proposal to invite Taiwan to participate at the WHA as an observer. Similar to previous years, two countries made statements in favor of the proposal, while two others expressed their opposition. Philippine Secretary of Health Teodoro Herbosa, president of the 78th WHA, accepted the WHA General Committee’s
At least three people died and more than a dozen were injured yesterday afternoon when a vehicle struck a group of pedestrians in New Taipei City’s Sansia District (三峽). The incident happened at about 4pm when a car rammed into pedestrians at an intersection near Bei Da Elementary School. Witnesses said the sedan, being driven at a high speed, ran a red light, knocking scooters out of the way and hitting students crossing the road before careening into a median near the intersection of Guocheng and Guoguang streets. The incident resulted in three deaths and 13 injuries, including the driver, a 78-year-old man