Renewed suggestions to amalgamate Taipei, New Taipei City and Keelung have reignited intense discussions, with neither members of the public, nor local and central government officials able to see eye to eye on the divisive matter.
Following former Taipei county’s upgrade to a special municipality renamed New Taipei City in late 2010, the municipality has had increasingly more interactions with Taipei, inciting calls for it to be consolidate with the capital.
Keelung, which is next to New Taipei City, has also long been the topic of a potential municipality merger, as its residents’ lives are closely intertwined with those of the two other cities.
In June 2009, the Ministry of the Interior held a meeting on the reorganization of municipalities, in which it passed an attached resolution encouraging the integration of the three cities to make the trio more competitive.
Since then, the possible amalgamation of Keelung, New Taipei City and Taipei, or the merger of Keelung with New Taipei City have been repeatedly raised by politicians.
Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) at one point backed merging the three cities, while former minister of the interior Lee Hong-yuan (李鴻源) deemed that endeavor too difficult and put his weight behind combining Keelung and New Taipei City instead, and former Presidential Office deputy secretary-general Lo Chih-chiang (羅智強) recently called for a third option of amalgamating Keelung and Taipei.
National Taiwan University Associate professor Thomas Peng (彭錦鵬) and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Chiang Huei-chen (江惠貞), who represents New Taipei City, think that consolidating the three cities would be good as it would result in the formation of a global megacity that would have seaports, an airport and a vast hinterland.
That would make the overall planning of regional matters, public infrastructure and transportation easier, the two said.
However, the general public have conflicting views on the matter.
While some believe the merger of Keelung and the capital could attract more resources to the former, others remain unconvinced by the proposal, worrying that Keelung would be subsequently marginalized.
Some have urged the central government to carefully evaluate the matter from the perspective of national land use planning, voicing concerns that the mega-merger would result in imbalanced regional development.
The interior ministry held public hearings on the amalgamation proposals in each of the three potentially affected cities last year, but no consensus was reached.
The ministry said that consolidating the three cities into a megacity with a population of 7 million, or close to one-third of the country’s total population, is a call that should be made from the bottom-up.
“Similarly, getting married is a decision that requires both parties’ consent,” Minister of the Interior Chen Wei-jen (陳威仁) said.
Democratic Progressive Party Keelung City Councilor Tsai Shih-ying (蔡適應), who is pro-merger, said that since none of the three cities’ populaces are voicing strong support for the idea, it would not be possible if the central government does not take the initiative.
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