Vowing to continue incumbent Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou's (馬英九) municipal policies and the Chinese Nationalist Party's (KMT) regime in the capital, Taipei mayoral candidate Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) has promised to revive the Tamsui River, upgrade Taipei Songshan Airport, standardize school textbooks and promote a zero-tolerance policy on crime.
Hau has pledged to continue dredging work on the Tamsui River, improve its water quality and make it an attractive destination for fishing, boating and other water activities within four years.
Another major policy, which has been vigorously pursued by the KMT, is to convert Songshan Airport into an international airport to serve as an exclusive terminal for cross-strait flights between Taipei, Hong Kong and Macau in the short term, and between Taipei and Shanghai in the medium term.
Huang Shu-ping (黃舒平), news coordinator of Hau's campaign, said that the mayoral candidate would also like to assist Taiwanese businesspeople in China in regard to their children's education, relationship consultations and legal issues back in Taiwan.
Hau vowed to instil integrity amongst the city government's staff to ensure a corruption-free administration. He has also presented a "zero-tolerance policy" on crime.
In an effort to reduce the burden on middle school students, Hau advocates standardizing textbooks. Schools and classes now use a variety of textbooks printed by different publishers.
As corruption has become a major concern in the local political scene following inquiries into the president's and Ma's usage of their discretionary funds, Hau has pledged to put his assets into trust and to require other top officials to follow suit.
Hau has also promised to set up an anti-corruption department under the city government and encourage civic groups to help monitor its performance.
Huang said Hau would continue to promote his campaign platform, adding that abandoning the other pan-blue candidate, People First Party Chairman, James Soong (宋楚瑜), to save Hau's bid should work in Hau's favor in the election.