The Taipei City Government’s current contract with Farglory Land Development Co (遠雄建設) for the construction of the Taipei Dome is “ridiculous,” Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) said yesterday.
“I think this contract is simply ridiculous,” Ko said. “How could it be possible to draft a contract that we have absolutely no way of defending?”
He said that under the contract, the stadium complex should have been completed by June last year.
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
While the firm was granted a one-time extension by the previous municipal administration, it has been in violation of the contract since a deadline passed last month, he added.
However, under the contract, “nothing can be done” to punish the firm for project delays, Ko said.
The mayor’s remarks follow statements by Farglory last week that construction of the site could be delayed past the date of the 2017 Universiade if the city does not go through with a controversial tunnel linking the project with the National Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall.
The firm said that the tunnel is intended as an evacuation route, but the plan has sparked criticism from the mayor for its “strange design,” with the capital deciding on Friday last week to delay the tunnel’s opening while officials review other options.
Ko has previously described Farglory’s statements about further potential construction delays as “blackmail,” promising to relocate the Universiade’s opening and closing ceremonies to the Taipei Gymnasium if the Taipei Dome site is unavailable.
When asked how he intended to respond to Farglory’s contract violations, the mayor yesterday said that he ordered the municipality’s Department of Legal Affairs to thoroughly research the capital’s legal options, while stopping short of saying Taipei would consider terminating the firm’s contract.
Ko’s dispute with Farglory is the largest of several with firms over projects on municipal land, including the Taipei New Horizon (臺北文創) building in the Songshan Cultural Park and the MeHAS City (美河市) development project next to the Xiaobitan MRT station.
“If we feel contractual terms are unreasonable, we will raise our hands in protest,” he said yesterday.
SILICON VALLEY HUB: The office would showcase Taiwan’s strengths in semiconductors and artificial intelligence, and help Taiwanese start-ups connect with global opportunities Taiwan has established an office in Palo Alto, one of the principal cities of Silicon Valley in California, aimed at helping Taiwanese technology start-ups gain global visibility, the National Development Council said yesterday. The “Startup Island Taiwan Silicon Valley hub” at No. 299 California Avenue is focused on “supporting start-ups and innovators by providing professional consulting, co-working spaces, and community platforms,” the council said in a post on its Web site. The office is the second overseas start-up hub established by the council, after a similar site was set up in Tokyo in September last year. Representatives from Taiwanese start-ups, local businesses and
‘DETERRENT’: US national security adviser-designate Mike Waltz said that he wants to speed up deliveries of weapons purchased by Taiwan to deter threats from China US president-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for US secretary of defense, Pete Hegseth, affirmed his commitment to peace in the Taiwan Strait during his confirmation hearing in Washington on Tuesday. Hegseth called China “the most comprehensive and serious challenge to US national security” and said that he would aim to limit Beijing’s expansion in the Indo-Pacific region, Voice of America reported. He would also adhere to long-standing policies to prevent miscalculations, Hegseth added. The US Senate Armed Services Committee hearing was the first for a nominee of Trump’s incoming Cabinet, and questions mostly focused on whether he was fit for the
EXPRESSING GRATITUDE: Without its Taiwanese partners which are ‘working around the clock,’ Nvidia could not meet AI demand, CEO Jensen Huang said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and US-based artificial intelligence (AI) chip designer Nvidia Corp have partnered with each other on silicon photonics development, Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said. Speaking with reporters after he met with TSMC chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家) in Taipei on Friday, Huang said his company was working with the world’s largest contract chipmaker on silicon photonics, but admitted it was unlikely for the cooperation to yield results any time soon, and both sides would need several years to achieve concrete outcomes. To have a stake in the silicon photonics supply chain, TSMC and
INDUSTRIAL CLUSTER: In Germany, the sector would be developed around Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s plant, and extend to Poland and the Czech Republic The Executive Yuan’s economic diplomacy task force has approved programs aimed at bolstering the nation’s chip diplomacy with Japan and European nations. The task force in its first meeting had its operational mechanism and organizational structure confirmed, with Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) the convener, and Vice Premier Cheng Li-chiun (鄭麗君) and Minister Without Portfolio Ma Yung-cheng (馬永成) the deputy conveners. Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) would be the convener of the task force’s strategy group in charge of policy planning for economic diplomacy. The meeting was attended by the heads of the National Development Council, the Ministry of Economic Affairs, the
RSS