Taoyuan County will become the nation’s sixth special municipality, effective Dec. 25 next year, the Cabinet decided at a meeting yesterday.
Taiwan currently has five special municipalities after the upgrade of New Taipei City (新北市), previously named Taipei County, the upgrades of a merged Taichung County and Taichung City and a merged Tainan County and Tainan City and the incorporation of Kaohsiung County into Kaohsiung City, which all took effect in December 2010, along with Taipei.
The Cabinet meeting yesterday approved the proposal submitted by the Ministry of the Interior to upgrade Taiyuan County, after which it will enjoy greater autonomy and a larger budget.
Upgrading Taoyuan County, with more resources directed to its government, is expected to spur regional development in neighboring Hsinchu and Miaoli counties, Premier Sean Chen (陳冲) told the Cabinet meeting.
Taoyuan County first applied for upgraded status in 2009, but it was passed over in favor of Greater Taichung, Greater Tainan and Greater Tainan.
After it reached a population threshold of 2 million in June 2011, the county government adopted the same administrative and budgeting rules as special municipalities to show its determination to upgrade its status.
Aborigines in Fusing Township (復興) opposed the upgrade plan because they would lose some of their autonomy. Under the Local Government Act (地方制度法), administrative heads of sub-units of a municipal city, namely districts, are designated by the mayor of the municipality.
Currently, residents of townships in a county select their administrative chief and township representatives by popular vote.
Chen has instructed the Ministry of the Interior to ensure that Aborigines have the right to participate in political affairs after the upgrade, Executive Yuan spokesperson Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) said. She did not elaborate.
Taipei, New Taipei City, Keelung and Taoyuan would issue a decision at 8pm on whether to cancel work and school tomorrow due to forecasted heavy rain, Keelung Mayor Hsieh Kuo-liang (謝國樑) said today. Hsieh told reporters that absent some pressing reason, the four northern cities would announce the decision jointly at 8pm. Keelung is expected to receive between 300mm and 490mm of rain in the period from 2pm today through 2pm tomorrow, Central Weather Administration data showed. Keelung City Government regulations stipulate that school and work can be canceled if rain totals in mountainous or low-elevation areas are forecast to exceed 350mm in
EVA Airways president Sun Chia-ming (孫嘉明) and other senior executives yesterday bowed in apology over the death of a flight attendant, saying the company has begun improving its health-reporting, review and work coordination mechanisms. “We promise to handle this matter with the utmost responsibility to ensure safer and healthier working conditions for all EVA Air employees,” Sun said. The flight attendant, a woman surnamed Sun (孫), died on Friday last week of undisclosed causes shortly after returning from a work assignment in Milan, Italy, the airline said. Chinese-language media reported that the woman fell ill working on a Taipei-to-Milan flight on Sept. 22
COUNTERMEASURE: Taiwan was to implement controls for 47 tech products bound for South Africa after the latter downgraded and renamed Taipei’s ‘de facto’ offices The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is still reviewing a new agreement proposed by the South African government last month to regulate the status of reciprocal representative offices, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. Asked about the latest developments in a year-long controversy over Taiwan’s de facto representative office in South Africa, Lin during a legislative session said that the ministry was consulting with legal experts on the proposed new agreement. While the new proposal offers Taiwan greater flexibility, the ministry does not find it acceptable, Lin said without elaborating. The ministry is still open to resuming retaliatory measures against South
The Central Emergency Operations Center (CEOC) has made a three-phased compulsory evacuation plan for Hualien County’s Mataian River (馬太鞍溪) disaster zone ahead of the potential formation of a typhoon. The plan includes mandatory vertical evacuation using air-raid-style alarms if needed, CEOC chief coordinator Chi Lien-cheng (季連成) told a news conference in the county yesterday. Volunteers would be prohibited from entering the disaster area starting tomorrow, the retired general said. The first phase would be relocating vulnerable residents, including elderly people, disabled people, pregnant women and dialysis patients, in shelters and hospitals, he said. The second phase would be mandatory evacuation of residents living in
RSS