The local government’s Department of Information and Tourism squandered taxpayers’ “life savings” after it used money from the city’s emergency secondary reserve fund, which is earmarked for emergency relief, to release a set of eight LINE stickers featuring panda cub Yuan Zai (圓仔), Taipei City Councilor Ho Chih-wei (何志偉) of the Democratic Progressive Party said on Tuesday.
Sources say that the city government and Taipei Zoo have spent nearly NT$6.12 million (US$201,600) promoting the cub since her birth on July 6 last year.
Yuan Zai is the first giant panda to be born in Taiwan and the first cub born to female panda Yuan Yuan (圓圓) and her mate, Tuan Tuan (團團), who were donated to Taiwan by China in 2008.
The city government has taken about NT$3.33 million from the reserve fund to promote the pandas, NT$1.6 million of which went toward the sticker pack and NT$1.73 million for a 10-day outdoor art exhibition featuring 1,600 papier-mache giant pandas made by French artist Paulo Grangeon, the sources said.
“A number of non-public companies have already launched panda-themed LINE stickers. There is really no point in the city government joining the craze, especially if doing so requires the misappropriation of emergency funds,” Ho said.
Despite the spending spree, the city government’s promotional efforts proved fruitless, as the public remain unaware of how the animal became endangered and what to do to help protect them, Ho said.
The department’s senior executive officer, Hsueh Chiu-huo (薛秋火), said that the city government only dipped into the reserve fund because the plan to hold a series of panda-themed events was drawn up after the administration had submitted its budget proposal for the year.
“According to the Budget Act [預算法] and the Manual for Preparing Taipei Municipal Government Subordinate Agency Budget, the city government is allowed to draw from the fund to finance programs implemented in response to unforeseen needs,” Hsueh said.
Hsueh said the panda publicity drive was based on a more general effort to promote species conservation, as evidenced by the cardboard signs featuring endangered polar bears and tree frogs that were installed by the city government during the first phase of the paper panda exhibit between Feb. 28 and Sunday.
“In addition, 200 paper Formosan black bears will debut at the second round of the exhibition at the main plaza of the National Concert Hall tomorrow,” Hsueh said.
As of yesterday, the sticker pack, titled Yuan Zai & Blackie-Bears Fun in Taipei, has been downloaded 2.42 million times and used 2.88 million times, according to statistics provided by the mobile chat application.
The stickers can be downloaded for free until April 10 and are valid for six months.
Additional reporting by CNA
POLAM KOPITIAM CASE: Of the two people still in hospital, one has undergone a liver transplant and is improving, while the other is being evaluated for a liver transplant A fourth person has died from bongkrek acid poisoning linked to the Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store, the Ministry of Health and Welfare said yesterday, as two other people remain seriously ill in hospital. The first death was reported on March 24. The man had been 39 years old and had eaten at the restaurant on March 22. As more cases of suspected food poisoning involving people who had eaten at the restaurant were reported by hospitals on March 26, the ministry and the Taipei Department of Health launched an investigation. The Food and
The long-awaited Taichung aquarium is expected to open next year after more than a decade of development. The building in Cingshui District (清水) is to feature a large ocean aquarium on the first floor, coral display area on the second floor, a jellyfish tank and Dajia River (大甲溪) basin display on the third, a river estuary display and restaurant on the fourth, and a cafe and garden on the fifth. As it is near Wuci Fishing Port (梧棲漁港), many are expecting the opening of the aquarium to bring more tourism to the harbor. Speaking at the city council on Monday, Taichung City Councilor
A fourth person has died in a food poisoning outbreak linked to the Xinyi (信義) branch of Malaysian restaurant chain Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in Taipei, Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang (王必勝) said on Monday. It was the second fatality in three days, after another was announced on Saturday. The 40-year-old woman experienced multiple organ failure in the early hours on Monday, and the family decided not to undergo emergency resuscitation, Wang said. She initially showed signs of improvement after seeking medical treatment for nausea, vomiting and diarrhea, but her condition worsened due to an infection, he said. Two others who
Taiwanese should be mindful when visiting China, as Beijing in July is likely to tighten the implementation of policies on national security following the introduction of two regulations, a researcher said on Saturday. China on Friday unveiled the regulations governing the law enforcement and judicial activities of national security agencies. They would help crack down on “illegal” and “criminal” activities that Beijing considers to be endangering national security, according to reports by China’s state media. The definition of what constitutes a national security threat in China is vague, Taiwan Thinktank researcher Wu Se-chih (吳瑟致) said. The two procedural regulations are to provide Chinese