President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) met local government heads yesterday and promised not only to forge closer relations between central and local governments but to help improve local governments’ finances.
All the pan-blue local government chiefs attended the gathering at the Presidential Office, but only five of the seven heads of cities and counties in southern Taiwan that are under Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) control were there.
Pingtung County Commissioner Tsao Chi-hung (曹啟鴻) and Yunlin County Commissioner Su Chih-fen (蘇治芬) were absent because of scheduling conflicts.
Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊) sat at the same table with Ma.
Ma expressed his support for local autonomy and encouraged local government chiefs to strengthen local development.
CHINA VISITS
The president also urged them to promote unique features of their cities and counties to the Chinese in the wake of the Executive Yuan’s decision to relax the restrictions on local government chiefs visiting China yesterday.
“Opening the way for city and county chiefs to visit China is local autonomy, and I encourage you to take the chance to promote the spirit of local autonomy in Taiwan to our friends in China,” the president said.
COOPERATION
He also urged the pan-green chiefs to forget election disagreements and work together for the people.
“We have different political concerns during campaigns. When elections are over, we should focus on administrative issues and joint efforts to resolve problems,” he said.
The Executive Yuan yesterday approved a southwestern extension of the Sanying MRT Line from New Taipei to Bade District (八德) in Taoyuan, with a goal of starting construction by late 2026. The 4.03-kilometer extension, featuring three new stations, will run from the current terminus at Yingtao Fude Station (LB12) in New Taipei City to Dannan Station (LB14), where it will connect with Taoyuan’s Green Line, New Taipei City Metro Corp said in a statement. This extension will follow the completion of core Sanying Line, a 14.29-kilometer medium-capacity system linking Tucheng (土城), Sansia (三峽)
CARGO LOSS: About 50 containers at the stern of the ‘Ever Lunar’ cargo ship went overboard, prompting the temporary closure of the port and disrupting operations Evergreen Marine Corp, Taiwan’s largest container shipper, yesterday said that all crew members aboard the Ever Lunar (長月) were safe after dozens of containers fell overboard off the coast of Peru the previous day. The incident occurred at 9:40am on Friday as the Ever Lunar was anchored and waiting to enter the Port of Callao when it suddenly experienced severe rolling, Evergreen said in a statement. The rolling, which caused the containers to fall, might have been caused by factors including a tsunami triggered by an earthquake in Russia, poor winter sea conditions in South America or a sudden influx of waves,
The Ministry of Culture yesterday officially launched the “We TAIWAN” cultural program on Osaka’s Nakanoshima sandbank, with the program’s mascot receiving overwhelming popularity. The cultural program, which runs from Aug. 2 to 20, was designed to partner with and capitalize on the 2025 World Expo that is being held in Osaka, Japan, from April 13 to Oct. 13, the ministry said. On the first day of the cultural program, its mascot, a green creature named “a-We,” proved to be extremely popular, as its merch was immediately in high demand. Long lines formed yesterday for the opening
BE CAREFUL: The virus rarely causes severe illness or death, but newborns, older people and those with medical conditions are at risk of more severe illness As more than 7,000 cases of chikungunya fever have been reported in China’s Guangdong Province this year, including 2,892 new cases last week, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday said it is monitoring the situation and considering raising the travel notice level, which might be announced today. The CDC issued a level 1 travel notice, or “watch,” for Guangdong Province on July 22, citing an outbreak in Foshan, a manufacturing hub in the south of the province, that was reported early last month. Between July 27 and Saturday, the province reported 2,892 new cases of chikungunya, reaching a total of 7,716
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