The Sports Affairs Council yesterday accused the Kaohsiung City Government of indecisiveness on the taking over of management at the World Games Stadium and criticized it for not actively addressing infrastructure issues at the stadium.
The remarks came after President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) traveled to Kaohsiung on Saturday. Commenting on the stadium, Ma said the city government should not waste such an expensive facility by not using it.
In a statement on the weekend, Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu’s (陳菊) campaign office said Ma’s remarks made a mockery of the World Games and were meant to destroy the pride of Kaohsiung residents.
“Ma seems to forget that the stadium is under the administration of the Sports Affairs Council, which remains unwilling to transfer the facility to the local government,” the office said.
The council told a press conference yesterday to refute Chen’s claims.
Sports Affairs Council Deputy Minister Chen Hsien-tsung (陳顯宗) said the construction of the stadium was funded entirely by the council. However, it entrusted the construction bureau of the Kaohsiung City Government to execute the plan.
He said he met Kaohisung Deputy Mayor Chiu Tai-san (邱太三) in 2008 and sought to discuss the possibility of letting the city manage operations at the stadium. Chiu, however, told him the city was not interested, citing financial reasons, he said.
“We set up an agency to manage the stadium’s operation after the World Games were over and the city government said in October it was once again interested,” Chen Hsien-tsung said.
As Premier Wu Dun-yih (吳敦義) has ordered the council to quickly transfer management of the stadium to the city government, the minister said the council issued an official letter to the city and asked it to submit a proposal on how it plans to manage the NT$7 billion (US$220 billion) property.
The council also identified 3,000 infrastructure problems at the stadium and asked the city’s construction bureau to address them before the council officially hands over the property to the city government.
Chen Hsien-tsung said the requirement was to ensure that the council will not be blamed for future problems.
As of yesterday, 47 infrastructure issues had yet to be addressed, he said, including six major ones. While the city has submitted a proposal, He said that it offered no specific details on how it would facilitate the transfer of the management.
Chen Hsien-tsung said the council had used the stadium to host more than 80 events and games after the World Games last year. In the press conference yesterday, it also displayed a list of events held since last year to show that the council has fully utilized the stadium.
“We are really tired of engaging in this kind of verbal sparring,” Chen Hsien-tsung said. “Let’s go by the rules and speak like professionals.”
An increase in Taiwanese boats using China-made automatic identification systems (AIS) could confuse coast guards patrolling waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast and become a loophole in the national security system, sources familiar with the matter said yesterday. Taiwan ADIZ, a Facebook page created by enthusiasts who monitor Chinese military activities in airspace and waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast, on Saturday identified what seemed to be a Chinese cargo container ship near Penghu County. The Coast Guard Administration went to the location after receiving the tip and found that it was a Taiwanese yacht, which had a Chinese AIS installed. Similar instances had also
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
AMENDMENT: Contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau must be reported, and failure to comply could result in a prison sentence, the proposal stated The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) yesterday voted against a proposed bill by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers that would require elected officials to seek approval before visiting China. DPP Legislator Puma Shen’s (沈伯洋) proposed amendments to the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), stipulate that contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau should be reported, while failure to comply would be punishable by prison sentences of up to three years, alongside a fine of NT$10 million (US$309,041). Fifty-six voted with the TPP in opposition
VIGILANCE: The military is paying close attention to actions that might damage peace and stability in the region, the deputy minister of national defense said The People’s Republic of China (PRC) might consider initiating a hack on Taiwanese networks on May 20, the day of the inauguration ceremony of president-elect William Lai (賴清德), sources familiar with cross-strait issues said. While US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s statement of the US expectation “that all sides will conduct themselves with restraint and prudence in the period ahead” would prevent military actions by China, Beijing could still try to sabotage Taiwan’s inauguration ceremony, the source said. China might gain access to the video screens outside of the Presidential Office Building and display embarrassing messages from Beijing, such as congratulating Lai