Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) yesterday continued his tour of public housing projects in Hong Kong, saying Taipei would seek to establish channels of communication to learn from the territory’s experience.
On the second day of his tour, Hau visited the Hong Kong Housing Authority and Upper Ngau Tau Kok Estate in Kowloon — a major housing project covered by a governmental program initiated in 1988 to rebuild old properties built before 1973.
The project, comprising nine blocks of at least 40 floors, is home to 16,000 low-income residents who were most affected by ongoing redevelopment at the Lower Ngau Tau Kok Estate.
Agency officials said public housing projects like the estate were aimed at offering affordable housing for low-income and minority groups.
About 30 percent of Hong Kong’s population lives in public housing, with the monthly rent ranging from HK$259 (US$33) to HK$3,525 per unit, or about 50 percent of the rent for private apartments.
Hau praised the Upper Ngau Tau Kok Estate for its facilities catering to the elderly and people with physical disabilities, as well as their environmentally friendly design, which allows sufficient airflow and daylight.
Hau said Taipei would learn from the project management’s experience to build quality public housing.
“The example of public housing in Hong Kong shows that public housing should not be equated with a low-quality living environment. Taipei will build high-quality public housing that offers residents a comfortable and convenient environment,” he said after the tour.
Low-income residents or minority groups, however, will not be the targets of Taipei’s public housing projects.
Hau said the city would offer affordable housing for rent to the city’s youth and middle-class residents who cannot afford to purchase property owing to skyrocketing real-estate prices.
While Hong Kong plans to use 12km2 of land to build public estates for 2 million residents, Hau said Taipei would use about 3km2 to create public housing units for 200,000 people.
Taipei’s first public rental housing project will be open to young residents in January next year, offering 110 units in the 11-story building near the Yuanshan MRT Station with a monthly rent that will be about 80 percent of the average rent in the area.
Taipei City Department of Finance Commissioner Chiu Da-chan (邱大展) said the city government had also selected two plots of land to build rental housing units in the Muzha (木柵) and Zhongzheng (中正) area near Taipei Municipal Jianguo High School.
The housing project near the school, with public bidding expected to take place this year, is a joint project with the Ministry of Education to offer about 100 apartment units for both local and international students, Chiu said.
The housing units in Muzha will be completed in two years, Chiu said.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), spokeswoman Yang Chih-yu (楊智伃) and Legislator Hsieh Lung-chieh (謝龍介) would be summoned by police for questioning for leading an illegal assembly on Thursday evening last week, Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) said today. The three KMT officials led an assembly outside the Taipei City Prosecutors’ Office, a restricted area where public assembly is not allowed, protesting the questioning of several KMT staff and searches of KMT headquarters and offices in a recall petition forgery case. Chu, Yang and Hsieh are all suspected of contravening the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法) by holding
PRAISE: Japanese visitor Takashi Kubota said the Taiwanese temple architecture images showcased in the AI Art Gallery were the most impressive displays he saw Taiwan does not have an official pavilion at the World Expo in Osaka, Japan, because of its diplomatic predicament, but the government-backed Tech World pavilion is drawing interest with its unique recreations of works by Taiwanese artists. The pavilion features an artificial intelligence (AI)-based art gallery showcasing works of famous Taiwanese artists from the Japanese colonial period using innovative technologies. Among its main simulated displays are Eastern gouache paintings by Chen Chin (陳進), Lin Yu-shan (林玉山) and Kuo Hsueh-hu (郭雪湖), who were the three young Taiwanese painters selected for the East Asian Painting exhibition in 1927. Gouache is a water-based
Taiwan would welcome the return of Honduras as a diplomatic ally if its next president decides to make such a move, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. “Of course, we would welcome Honduras if they want to restore diplomatic ties with Taiwan after their elections,” Lin said at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, when asked to comment on statements made by two of the three Honduran presidential candidates during the presidential campaign in the Central American country. Taiwan is paying close attention to the region as a whole in the wake of a
OFF-TARGET: More than 30,000 participants were expected to take part in the Games next month, but only 6,550 foreign and 19,400 Taiwanese athletes have registered Taipei city councilors yesterday blasted the organizers of next month’s World Masters Games over sudden timetable and venue changes, which they said have caused thousands of participants to back out of the international sporting event, among other organizational issues. They also cited visa delays and political interference by China as reasons many foreign athletes are requesting refunds for the event, to be held from May 17 to 30. Jointly organized by the Taipei and New Taipei City governments, the games have been rocked by numerous controversies since preparations began in 2020. Taipei City Councilor Lin Yen-feng (林延鳳) said yesterday that new measures by
RSS