The Syntrend Creative Park Co resumed construction of the Taipei IT Park in the city’s Bade (八德) commercial district, Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) said yesterday.
Taipei IT Park is a build-operate-transfer project between Syntrend and the Taipei City Government to develop the Guanghua electronics market area.
The announcement marked the end of an 18-day standoff between Hon Hai Precision Industry —Syntrend’s parent company — and the city government.
Following the controversy surrounding Syntrend’s bid for the NT$3.7 billion (US$117.7 million) project, Hon Hai took out a front-page advertisement in six major Chinese-language newspapers on Jan. 19 that demanded that the local government make public all documents relating to the bidding process, adding that it would cease construction on the site until the municipal government affirmed the bid’s legality.
However, the city government never backed down, with Ko slamming Hon Hai’s newspaper ads and threats.
Gou Shou-cheng (郭守正), the chairman of Syntrend and the eldest son of Hon Hai chairman Terry Gou (郭台銘), who paid his first visit to city hall on Jan. 22 to break the deadlock, had another meeting on Wednesday with the city’s finance department.
Talks went smoothly and the consensus was that Syntrend would help young entrepreneurs start their companies and create prosperity in the Guanghua electronics market area, Gou Shou-cheng said.
Syntrend would resume construction of the complex and a skybridge, designed to prevent the complex from siphoning off business from the neighboring Guanghua Digital Plaza, Gou Shou-cheng said on Wednesday after the meeting.
Asked whether the park would be opened next month as scheduled, Gou Shou-cheng did not give a definite answer, adding that he would have to discuss the matter with his team.
However, Gou Shou-cheng promised to accelerate construction of the skybridge and expects the work to be completed by June, according to Taipei City Government Department of Finance Commissioner Su Jain-rong (蘇建榮).
The Clean Government Commission is to be charged with reviewing contract terms and royalties paid by the company to the city government, Su added.
Ko said that the key issue remaining was mapping out future development of the IT park and the surrounding areas, adding that the Hon Hai group comported itself in a most friendly manner with the city government during negotiations.
NATIONAL SECURITY: Authorities are working to confirm the identities of the military personnel involved and investigating possible illegal conduct and regulatory violations Authorities are probing possible national security implications after Kinmen police and immigration officers on Sunday found a Chinese woman allegedly posing as a tourist while engaging in prostitution involving more than 10 military personnel. The woman, surnamed Chen (陳), has since been deported, authorities said, adding that investigators are still working to confirm the identities of those implicated, as the records only listed code names and aliases. The case stemmed from a report received by the Kinmen District Prosecutors’ Office on Friday last week from the Jinhu Precinct of the Kinmen County Police Bureau. On Sunday, police, along with the National Immigration
REASONS FOR TRAVEL: An assistant professor said that proposed amendments to penalize drivers if they used drugs overseas would not deter people from traveling People who operate a motor vehicle under the influence of marijuana would have their driver’s license revoked, even if they used the substance while overseas, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications said yesterday, citing proposed amendments to the Road Traffic Management and Penalty Act (道路交通管理處罰條例). The amendments would also authorize the government to revoke the licenses of people determined to have used Category 1 or Category 2 narcotics, even if they were not operating a vehicle while under the influence of drugs, as well as ban them from taking the license test for three years, the ministry said. People aged 18 or
GLOBALGIVING: ‘ Caving to external pressure is not acceptable for an organization that has cultivated justice reform and human rights for 30 years,’ one NGO said A slew of non-government organizations (NGOs) have withdrawn from the GlobalGiving fundraising platform after it announced it would use “Chinese Taipei” instead of “Taiwan” from next month. The Taiwan Good Rice Association wrote on Facebook on Friday that it was informed on April 28 via a teleconference call of the change, which was made because the platform wanted to operate in China. Taiwan Good Rice is to terminate all cooperative relationships with GlobalGiving in response to the platform’s “unilateral and non-negotiable” decision to remove references to Taiwan, the NGO said. “Taiwan is in the official name of Taiwan Good Rice Association and the
HEAVY WEATHER: Typhoon Jangmi is due to crash straight into the Ryukyus as airlines look to shift flights to larger aircraft or cancel flights to Okinawa entirely Taiwan’s international air carriers announced flight adjustments over the weekend as Typhoon Jangmi is forecast to hit the Ryukyu Islands today and tomorrow. The Central Weather Administration (CWA) upgraded Jangmi from a tropical storm to a typhoon at 8am yesterday, with the eye located 580km south of Naha city. It was moving north at 19kph. Today, China Airlines’ CI-120, CI-121, CI-122 and CI-123 flights between Taoyuan and Naha, Okinawa, have been canceled as well as CI-132 and CI-133 between Kaohsiung and Naha. EVA Air’s BR-112, BR-113, BR-186 and BR-185 flights between Taoyuan and Naha are also canceled. Low-cost carrier Tigerair Taiwan canceled IT-230,
RSS