The Taipei City Government yesterday unveiled its mobile payment platform called pay.taipei.
The city’s Department of Information Technology has established the platform that can be used to pay utility bills and parking fees. Medical bills can also be paid through the service at Taipei City Hospital’s eight branches.
Speaking at a news conference yesterday morning, Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) said that Apple founder Steve Jobs might not have been aware how much the firm’s iPhones would affect everyday life.
Photo: Chu Pei-hsiung, Taipei Times
Pay.taipei integrates the city government’s various payment systems, Ko said, adding that the departments previously had to negotiate with different payment companies to manage the collection of parking, utility and medical fees.
“With the establishment of the new payment system, previous limitations on when and where bills could be paid will be overcome,” he said, adding that people will be able to make payments even at midnight.
Ko said electronic commerce and distribution is an economic trend that will change Taiwan and the world, adding that he hopes the nation can develop its e-commerce services as fast as China.
He will discuss e-commerce development when he attends the twin-city forum between Taipei and Shanghai next month, Ko said.
Services such as Uber, Airbnb and oBike should be managed, but not prohibited, because they are part of a global economic trend that cannot be stopped, Ko added.
The city government will foster the development of such platforms, he said.
“No matter the pace, the central government is moving forward; we [the city government] will not be dragged down,” he said, adding that there are many regulations that hinder development, but the city government will make efforts to develop e-commerce.
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus yesterday said it opposes the introduction of migrant workers from India until a mechanism is in place to prevent workers from absconding. Minister of Labor Hung Sun-han (洪申翰) on Thursday told the Legislative Yuan that the first group of migrant workers from India could be introduced as early as this year, as part of a government program. The caucus’ opposition to the policy is based on the assessment that “the risk is too high,” KMT caucus secretary-general Lin Pei-hsiang (林沛祥) said. Taiwan has a serious and long-standing problem of migrant workers absconding from their contracts, indicating that
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