Greater Kaohsiung should serve as the catalyst of expedited development in southern Taiwan, which would eventually result in the balanced regional development of the country, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said yesterday in Greater Kaohsiung.
The development of Greater Kaohsiung as a port metropolis would be crucial in making the special municipality the economic engine for southern Taiwan, the DPP chairperson said at a campaign stop.
Tsai was briefed about a project to develop Kaohsiung’s bay area by 2014 by Kaohsiung’s DPP Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊) on a boat ride to inspect the harbor. The project would include a pop music center, a public library, a trade exhibition center, a tourist center and a light-rail rapid transit system.
Photo: CNA
The development gap between northern and southern Taiwan during the governance of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) was alarming and the gap has widened after the high-speed rail system started operating, she said.
“That is why it is important to improve the infrastructure in southern Taiwan so that we can have balanced regional development,” she said.
Tsai pledged to increase and speed up funding if she is elected next month and reiterated that she would not make any promises she could not keep.
In related news, the DPP launched a TV spot focused on immigration policy.
The ad, which is in Vietnamese, tries to appeal to the hundreds of thousands of foreign spouses in Taiwan.
It says that they should not be discriminated against, because they have made great contributions to Taiwanese society.
Tsai’s campaign pledged to implement a new immigrant-friendly policy, which would encourage foreign spouses to teach their children their native languages and improve vocational training.
It is the only TV ad in the presidential campaign so far that is in a foreign language.
US climber Alex Honnold is to attempt to scale Taipei 101 without a rope and harness in a live Netflix special on Jan. 24, the streaming platform announced on Wednesday. Accounting for the time difference, the two-hour broadcast of Honnold’s climb, called Skyscraper Live, is to air on Jan. 23 in the US, Netflix said in a statement. Honnold, 40, was the first person ever to free solo climb the 900m El Capitan rock formation in Yosemite National Park — a feat that was recorded and later made into the 2018 documentary film Free Solo. Netflix previewed Skyscraper Live in October, after videos
Starting on Jan. 1, YouBike riders must have insurance to use the service, and a six-month trial of NT$5 coupons under certain conditions would be implemented to balance bike shortages, a joint statement from transportation departments across Taipei, New Taipei City and Taoyuan announced yesterday. The rental bike system operator said that coupons would be offered to riders to rent bikes from full stations, for riders who take out an electric-assisted bike from a full station, and for riders who return a bike to an empty station. All riders with YouBike accounts are automatically eligible for the program, and each membership account
A classified Pentagon-produced, multiyear assessment — the Overmatch brief — highlighted unreported Chinese capabilities to destroy US military assets and identified US supply chain choke points, painting a disturbing picture of waning US military might, a New York Times editorial published on Monday said. US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s comments in November last year that “we lose every time” in Pentagon-conducted war games pitting the US against China further highlighted the uncertainty about the US’ capability to intervene in the event of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. “It shows the Pentagon’s overreliance on expensive, vulnerable weapons as adversaries field cheap, technologically
NUMBERs IMBALANCE: More than 4 million Taiwanese have visited China this year, while only about half a million Chinese have visited here Beijing has yet to respond to Taiwan’s requests for negotiation over matters related to the recovery of cross-strait tourism, the Tourism Administration said yesterday. Taiwan’s tourism authority issued the statement after Chinese-language daily the China Times reported yesterday that the government’s policy of banning group tours to China does not stop Taiwanese from visiting the country. As of October, more than 4.2 million had traveled to China this year, exceeding last year. Beijing estimated the number of Taiwanese tourists in China could reach 4.5 million this year. By contrast, only 500,000 Chinese tourists are expected in Taiwan, the report said. The report
RSS