Expanding the MRT system connecting Taipei City and County to the east to neighboring Keelung City is imperative to bolstering regional development, Vice President Vincent Siew (蕭萬長) said yesterday.
Denying that it was a campaign to win votes, Siew said President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration would push for the expansion of the Taipei MRT system via the city’s northeastern suburbs of Nangang (南港) and Sijhih (汐止) toward Keelung City.
“An expanded MRT system is necessary for the integration of Taipei City, Taipei County and Keelung City in the future,” Siew said while addressing the opening of the annual conference on regional development of northern Taiwan.
Quoting Kenichi Ohmae, Japanese management guru who coined the term “M-shaped society” and author of The Borderless World, Siew said globalization does not only involve nations competing against nations, but also cities against cities.
The integration of metropolises is also a world trend, he said.
Siew said the Committee on Northern Taiwan Regional Development was established in 2004 under the leadership of then-Taipei mayor Ma to push regional development.
He said that although the eight northern cities and counties — Taipei City, Taipei County, Keelung City, Yilan County, Taoyuan County, Hsinchu City, Hsinchu County and Miaoli County — constitute only one-fourth of the nation’s total area, the aggregate number of residents make up about half of the nation’s population and contribute 65 percent to national tax revenues.
“The development of northern Taiwan has led the development of central, eastern and southern Taiwan,” Siew said.
He said economies of scale were critical to economic development, but they could also hinder growth if the scale was too big.
“An economy that is the right size is the best way to development, and today’s superpowers — including the US, Japan and China — have all strived toward that direction,” he said.
Mayors and county chiefs of the eight northern cities and counties signed a joint statement upon the conclusion of the conference, hoping to further facilitate regional development through cooperation between the central and local governments.
A tropical depression east of the Philippines became a tropical storm early yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, less than a week after a typhoon barreled across the nation. The agency issued an advisory at 3:30am stating that the 22nd tropical storm, named Yinxing, of the Pacific typhoon season formed at 2am. As of 8am, the storm was 1,730km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, with a 100km radius. It was moving west-northwest at 32kph, with maximum sustained winds of 83kph and gusts of up to 108kph. Based on its current path, the storm is not expected to hit Taiwan, CWA
Residents have called on the Taipei City Government to reconsider its plan to demolish a four-decades-old pedestrian overpass near Daan Forest Park. The 42-year-old concrete and steel structure that serves as an elevated walkway over the intersection of Heping and Xinsheng roads is to be closed on Tuesday in preparation for demolition slated for completion by the end of the month. However, in recent days some local residents have been protesting the planned destruction of the intersection overpass that is rendered more poetically as “sky bridge” in Chinese. “This bridge carries the community’s collective memory,” said a man surnamed Chuang
A tropical depression east of the Philippines became a tropical storm earlier today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The 22nd tropical storm, named Yinxing, in this year's Pacific typhoon season formed at 2am, the CWA said. As of 8am, the storm was 1,730km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻) with a 100km radius, it said. It was moving west-northwest at 32kph, with maximum sustained winds of 83kph and gusts of up to 108kph. Based on its current path, the storm is not expected to hit Taiwan, CWA meteorologist Huang En-hung (黃恩宏) said. However, a more accurate forecast would be made on Wednesday, when Yinxing is
NEW DESTINATIONS: Marketing campaigns to attract foreign travelers have to change from the usual promotions about Alishan and Taroko Gorge, the transport minister said The number of international tourists visiting Taiwan is estimated to top 8 million by the end of this year, Minister of Transportation and Communications Chen Shi-kai (陳世凱) said yesterday, adding that the ministry has not changed its goal of attracting 10 million foreign travelers this year. Chen made the remarks at a meeting of the legislature’s Transportation Committee to brief lawmakers about the ministry’s plan to boost foreign visitor arrivals. Last month, Chen told the committee that the nation might attract only 7.5 million tourists from overseas this year and that when the ministry sets next year’s goal, it would not include