Greater Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊) took her oath and began her four-year term in office yesterday, pledging to open new horizons for the port city that was officially merged with neighboring Kaohsiung County to become a special municipality.
Stressing that all resources would be equally shared and fairly distributed, she also pledged to reduce the gap between rural and urban areas.
“I pledge there will absolutely be no such thing as a so-called ‘one city, two systems,’” she said.
She also called on the central government to attach more importance to the voices of southern Taiwanese.
Minister without Portfolio Lin Junq-tzer (林政則) presided over the swearing-in ceremony and handed over to Chen the official seal.
Lin reiterated President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) concern for striking a balanced development between the north and south of the country, and noted that many of the central government’s 12 major development projects would be carried out in the south.
Former premier Frank Hsieh (謝長廷), a former Kaohsiung mayor, also took part in the ceremony, which was marred by a tiny group of protesters who demanded that Chen step down over controversy about the construction of a liquid petroleum gas station in the city.
Both Chen and Hsieh are Democratic Progressive Party heavyweights.
Immediately following her inauguration, Chen called a meeting with all bureau chiefs and approved several documents, including one to set up a committee to promote reconstruction in areas damaged by Typhoon Morakot last year.
The economy, flood prevention, public security, green energy and rural development would be high on her agenda as part of her efforts to transform Taiwan’s largest port city, according to Chen.
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.