Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) will begin a five-day visit to Hong Kong and Singapore tomorrow, as he seeks to learn from the public housing and urban renewal projects in the two cities as Taipei plans to build more public housing in the next four years.
Hau will visit Hong Kong’s -Urban Renewal Authority and local public housing projects, such as Ngau Tau Kok in Kowloon, from Sunday to Tuesday.
In Singapore, he will meet with officials from the Urban Redevelopment Authority, visit public housing units built by Singapore’s Housing and Development Board and hold a meeting with potential investors about land development in an effort attact both Taiwanese and foreign investors.
Taipei City Government spokesperson Chao Hsin-ping (趙心屏), who also serves as the head of the city’s Department of Tourism and Information, said offering affordable public housing and making Taipei a more beautiful city through urban renewal projects were major items on Hau’s agenda, adding that the public housing projects in the two cities would serve as models of success for Taipei.
Hau promised to increase the number of affordable housing units throughout the city to 50,000 during the next four years in an effort to combat skyrocketing real estate prices.
The city intends to provide 181 public housing units for rentals this year located near new MRT stations, including Xingtian Temple Station, Xianse Temple Station and Sindian Station. As with the Yuanshan project, rent will be about 80 percent of the average paid in the area.
During the tour, Hau will also visit Clarke Quay in Singapore to study its waterfront development, since cleaning up the Tamsui River (淡水河) is also high on his agenda.
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