National Palace Museum Director Chou Kung-shin (周功鑫) yesterday managed the rare feat of uniting both ruling party and opposition lawmakers in fury as she defended her administration of the museum and plans to open a southern branch of the museum in 2015.
Chou told the legislature’s Education and Culture Committee she hoped her team could begin looking for architects for the Chiayi branch museum by the end of this year and complete construction of the facility by the end of 2015, provided everything goes smoothly. She said the museum had earmarked NT$114 million (US$3.78 million) in next year’s budget for the four-year, NT$7.9 billion project.
The original design, by Antoine Predock Architects and Lord Cultural Resources, called for a multi-functional museum to handle research, display, education and storage. It was supposed to be completed in 2008, but years of delay led the two firms to lose the contract.
Photo: CNA
Chou told lawmakers the delays stemmed from a number of factors, including concerns about flooding in the area and problems with the two major contractors, who are now involved in a contract dispute with the government.
The meeting got off to a rough start in the morning when Chou upset Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators by interrupting as they were speaking.
At one point, KMT Legislator Yang Li-huan (楊麗環) pounded the table and told Chou to shut up as Yang was talking, while KMT Legislator Chao Li-yun (趙麗雲) was so angry she slammed Chou’s report on the table and threatened to cut the museum’s budget.
Matters didn’t improve when Chou called the DPP and KMT legislators’ questions unprofessional and told them she was speaking as an expert in museum management.
Yang refused to shake hands with Chuo during the meeting’s recess and said all the museum’s problems would be resolved if Chou were replaced.
Asked about public complaints of overcrowding at the museum and it being turned into a “market” or “wholesale store” because of the dramatic increase in Chinese visitors, Chou said certain measures should be implemented to address the problem, including extending opening hours and increasing the number of service people.
She said it might also be necessary to turn away visitors once the daily limit of 7,000 and 8,000 has been reached.
The museum also planned to spend NT$16 million on an expansion project approved by the Executive Yuan in August, she said. However, DPP legislators accused Chou of jumping the gun by spending NT$900,000 on a feasibility assessment for the expansion, even though the legislature has yet to approve the project.
Chou said the museum’s gift shops and restaurants have generated revenues of NT$550 million this year and should reach NT$700 million next year.
She also said the museum had stopped distributing profits to its employees this year — a practice the Ministry of the Interior said in June last year was illegal — and began paying 10 percent of annual revenues to the treasury.
DPP Legislator Lin Shu-fen (林淑芬) said it would make more sense to place all the museum’s revenues under legislative oversight because they were generated by national treasures that are state property.
Building a southern branch of the museum was first announced by then-president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) in 2003. In October last year, President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) promised the branch would be open in 2012 as he campaigned for a KMT candidate in last December’s local elections.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY STAFF WRITER
SPEEDING ELETRIC VEHICLES: Available without license requirements, the low-cost vehicles, especially if illicitly modified, can often reach a dangerous speed The government should crack down on illegal electric bicycles and scooters, the non-profit Consumers’ Foundation said on Friday, citing research on the potentially dangerous speed of the vehicles. Electric bicycles and lightweight electric scooters have gained popularity as they do not require registration and riders do not need licenses, the foundation said, adding that as many as 40 percent of them can reach speeds exceeding the legal limit of 25kph for non-licensed two-wheelers. Some consumers also purchased legal electric vehicles and modified them to reach higher speeds, it said. “If the government does not step up efforts to confiscate these
DIPLOMATIC MOVES: Beijing is reportedly pressing the state after reports of forming links with Taiwan, while the ministry is also planning to reopen its office in Guam soon A representative office is set to open in Somaliland at the end of this month, at the earliest, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said yesterday amid reports that Beijing is sending a diplomatic delegation to the east African country. The ministry on July 1 announced that Taiwan and Somaliland would establish representative offices, following a report by the Somaliland Chronicle Web site. It said at the time that the two nations did not plan to establish formal ties. Somaliland President Muse Bihi Abdi has instructed close confidants to explore the possibility of “mutual recognition between Taiwan and Somaliland,” the Somaliland Chronicle reported
A Belgian man who tested positive for COVID-19 in Taiwan last week is likely to have contracted the disease in Taipei in late June, National Taiwan University (NTU) College of Public Health vice dean Tony Chen (陳秀熙) said yesterday. The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) on Saturday reported that the man, who is in his 20s, came to Taiwan for work on May 3 and tested positive on Wednesday last week as he was about to depart. The man in March reported loss of taste and smell, the center said, adding that he worked in Changhua County, but visited Taipei several times,
NEW ERA: Taiwan, which has controlled its virus outbreak, now faces the challenge of safely resuming economic exchanges with other nations, Chang Shan-chwen said People should not focus entirely on having zero new confirmed COVID-19 cases in Taiwan, but neglect overall control over the disease situation, Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) specialist advisory panel convener Chang Shan-chwen (張上淳) said yesterday. Chang made the remark at a forum in Taipei discussing the steps Taiwan should take in the post-pandemic era, organized by the Chinese-language magazine Global Views Monthly. Chang, Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Director-General Chou Jih-haw (周志浩), and Stanford University’s Center for Policy, Outcomes and Prevention director C. Jason Wang (王智弘) each made a presentation, followed by a panel discussion with Chang, Wang and Buddhist Tzu
RSS