Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) yesterday vowed to rejuvenate the city with urban renewal projects, municipal developments and better public service in the next four years as he was sworn in in a ceremony that marked the beginning of his second term.
Taking the official seal from Vice Premier Sean Chen at Taipei City Hall, the mayor pledged to focus his second term on policies that will turn Taipei into a younger and more energetic city, including offering childbirth subsidies, zero-interest loans for startup businesses and overseas studies and affordable rental housing units.
“Taipei is a great city, but not young enough ... The policies are aimed at attracting younger people to work and live in Taipei ... I will be the mayor of all citizens and increase the city’s international competitiveness,” Hau of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) said.
In his inauguration speech, Hau promised to enhance communication with the public and make more efforts to explain municipal policies to the people.
“Communication is the most important thing I’ve learned in the past months during the election campaign. I will communicate with the public more and carry out my campaign promises,” he said.
The city government will also include issues raised by the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌), who lost to Hau in the Nov. 27 mayoral election, such as planting more trees and building green boulevards in the city, in discussions for municipal developments, Hau said.
For his second term, Hau promised to complete the road surface improvement project that will make 675 major roads in the city more even and push further for the 1999 Taipei Citizen Hotline to offer 24-hour service to residents.
He said he would also work closely with New Taipei City (新北市, the proposed English name of the upgraded Taipei County) Mayor Eric Chu (朱立倫) over the next four years to turn the banks along the Tamsui River (淡水河) into recreational areas and build more MRT lines connecting the two municipalities.
The 37 members of new administrative team in Taipei City were also sworn in. Representing outgoing officials in a farewell speech, former Taipei deputy mayor Lin Chien-yuan (林建元) urged all administrative officials to be able to handle criticisms while focusing the efforts on municipal developments.
“The architect who designed the pavilions at the Taipei International Flora Expo won top awards after being criticized by the press. All officials should be able to take criticisms,” he said.
About 200 guests attended the ceremony yesterday, including former KMT chairman Wu Poh-hsiung (吳伯雄), New Party Chairman Yok Mu-ming (郁慕明) as well as foreign dignitaries.
Costa Rica sent a group of intelligence officials to Taiwan for a short-term training program, the first time the Central American country has done so since the countries ended official diplomatic relations in 2007, a Costa Rican media outlet reported last week. Five officials from the Costa Rican Directorate of Intelligence and Security last month spent 23 days in Taipei undergoing a series of training sessions focused on national security, La Nacion reported on Friday, quoting unnamed sources. The Costa Rican government has not confirmed the report. The Chinese embassy in Costa Rica protested the news, saying in a statement issued the same
Taiwan’s Liu Ming-i, right, who also goes by the name Ray Liu, poses with a Chinese Taipei flag after winning the gold medal in the men’s physique 170cm competition at the International Fitness and Bodybuilding Federation Asian Championship in Ajman, United Arab Emirates, yesterday.
A year-long renovation of Taipei’s Bangka Park (艋舺公園) began yesterday, as city workers fenced off the site and cleared out belongings left by homeless residents who had been living there. Despite protests from displaced residents, a city official defended the government’s relocation efforts, saying transitional housing has been offered. The renovation of the park in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), near Longshan Temple (龍山寺), began at 9am yesterday, as about 20 homeless people packed their belongings and left after being asked to move by city personnel. Among them was a 90-year-old woman surnamed Wang (王), who last week said that she had no plans
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.