The Taipei County Council demanded yesterday that the county government discard the word "quasi" when referring to the county, as it decided to press ahead with plans to upgrade the county into a special municipality, instead of a "quasi-municipality."
A resolution calling for the Taipei County Government to remove the word “quasi” from the designation of Taipei County was submitted by 53 county councilors across party lines and cleared the council on Tuesday.
The central government upgraded Taipei County to a “quasi-municipality” last October.
CONFUSION
But the county council said the use of that term had increased the controversy over the county commissioner’s rights to promote personnel, creating a gray area between the central and the regional government.
The council said it would coordinate with the Taipei County Government in referring the resolution to the Executive Yuan to pave the way for the county’s upgrading to a “real” special municipality.
NAME GAME
The councilors were divided, however, over what the county should be called after it becomes a municipality. Some favor “Xinbei City” (新北市) or “New Taipei City,” while others said that county residents should be allowed to decide the new name.
At present, Taipei City and Kaohsiung City are the only two special municipalities in the country.
Taiwan is to receive the first batch of Lockheed Martin F-16 Block 70 jets from the US late this month, a defense official said yesterday, after a year-long delay due to a logjam in US arms deliveries. Completing the NT$247.2 billion (US$7.69 billion) arms deal for 66 jets would make Taiwan the third nation in the world to receive factory-fresh advanced fighter jets of the same make and model, following Bahrain and Slovakia, the official said on condition of anonymity. F-16 Block 70/72 are newly manufactured F-16 jets built by Lockheed Martin to the standards of the F-16V upgrade package. Republic of China
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