Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) Taipei and Sinbei mayoral candidates — Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) and former vice premier Eric Chu (朱立倫) — yesterday vowed to work together to build up the two cities with urban developments in riverside areas as part of their joint election campaign.
Accompanied by KMT Secretary-General King Pu-tsung (金溥聰) and KMT Vice Chairman Chan Chun-po (詹春柏), the two candidates proposed setting up a joint decision-making committee if elected to proceed with urban renewal projects centering around the Tamsui River (淡水河), as well as drawing up municipal programs together to better connect the two cities.
PHOTO: CHIEN JUNG-FONG, TAIPEI TIMES
“Taipei City and Sinbei City are already connected as a living circle for the residents, and we need to seek closer cooperation to develop the areas more rapidly and thoroughly,” Chu said yesterday during a press conference at KMT headquarters.
Hau said if they were elected, the two cities would set up a joint decision-making committee to draw up municipal development plans, such as MRT expansions and dredging work on the Tamsui River.
The two cities will also set up a Tamsui River Management Department to clean up the river and proceed with urban renewal projects around the river to turn it into the “Manhattan Riverside” of Taipei.
According to Hau, Taipei City will use 200 hectares of space along the river for affordable housing units and an art zone, while Sinbei City would have 303 hectares of land for urban renewal projects.
Yesterday’s joint press conference marked the second of a series of joint election events Hau and Chu plan to hold.
Chanting “Go, go, Hau Lung-bin! Go, go, Eric Chu!” party officials and local councilors cheered the two candidates on and tried to boost the momentum for the candidates in November’s mayoral elections.
The KMT sought to appeal to voters by highlighting close cooperation between Hau and Chu in continuing municipal construction as they seek to be elected over the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) Taipei mayoral candidate, former premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌), and the DPP’s Sinbei mayoral candidate, DPP Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文).
King yesterday expressed his confidence in the pair’s performance in the elections, while dismissing allegations that he had sought cooperation from Kaohsiung County Commissioner Yang Chiu-hsing (楊秋興) and Tainan Mayor Hsu Tien-tsair (許添財) in an attempt to cause a pan-green split in Greater Tainan and Kaohsiung City elections.
Yang and Hsu failed the primaries and did not represent the party in the two cities’ elections. The KMT has allegedly been in contact with the two to seek their alliance in the elections.
King said the KMT followed its own pace in the election campaign, and would not seek cooperation from pan-green figures.
“We will not count on a split among our opponents for an election victory,” he said.
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