The key objective of next year’s Summer Universiade is to put local businesses and industries on the global stage, Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) said yesterday at a ceremony where he accepted 80,000 pieces of Universiade clothing donated by textile manufacturer Fu Hsun Fiber Industries Co.
The international sporting event to be hosted by Taipei in August is the largest multi-sport event in the world apart from the Olympic Games.
The essence of the Universiade is “to allow Taiwan to reach out to the world and welcome the world to Taiwan,” so as soon as the city began soliciting private-sector donations for the event, he instructed the Taipei Universiade Organizing Committee to give priority to local sponsors in a bid to put Taiwanese firms on the global stage, Ko said.
Describing the textile industry as “Taiwan’s pride,” Ko said about half of the world’s fire-proximity suits and leotards are made in Taiwan, and while Taiwan did not make it to the 2014 FIFA World Cup, at least 10 teams in Brazil competed wearing Taiwanese-manufactured kits.
The clothes donated by Fu Hsun, including sports jackets, caps and pants, are to be used by Universiade staff, including city government employees and volunteers, the committee said.
Ko said that he would ask city employees to wear the clothes to work to raise public awareness of the Universiade.
Of the NT$17.2 billion (US$538.7 million) budgeted for the event, the municipality hopes to raise NT$890 million in capital or goods of equivalent value from the private sector, and NT$830 million through ticket sales, sporting equipment sales and rent revenue from properties at the athletes’ village in Taoyuan, which are to be converted into social housing after the Games, the committee said.
The committee said that it has surpassed the NT$890 million mark, having received donations including beverages, clothes and flight ticket discounts for international sports delegations, as well as NT$7.8 million in cash.
It would continue soliciting donations to satisfy the demand for Universiade equipment such as tents and garbage cans, the committee said.
Responding to media queries regarding a borough warden’s suggestion that Gangqian Bridge, which was torn down in 1992, be rebuilt to ease traffic congestion in Neihu District (內湖), Ko said that he would consult professionals on the matter.
Traffic problems in Neihu are difficult to solve, because the population working and living there has quadrupled over the years, the mayor said.
Even though some improvements have been made to ameliorate the situation, the results have been too insignificant for residents to notice, Ko added.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
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