Taipei Deputy Mayor Charles Lin (林欽榮) yesterday rebutted charges of past ties with the Farglory Group (遠雄集團).
A written statement issued by Lin’s office said that while he had previously participated in several overseas trips financed by Farglory, he was only one of several academics taken along to provide opinions on the topic of “smart communities” as part of normal cooperation with corporations.
While National Chiao Tung University’s “Eco-City” center — with which Lin was affiliated during his time at the university — had previously received donations from Farglory, he was not personally involved in negotiating the donations or the center’s application to participate in the construction of the Taipei Dome complex, the statement said.
Lin chairs a city safety commission that in April called for the demolition of major portions of the Dome complex, a “build-operate-transfer” (BOT) project that was contracted to Farglory by previous city administrations.
The statement added that Lin had no special relationship with Farglory chairman Chao Teng-hsiung (趙藤雄) and that the accusations were obscuring the issue of the Dome’s safety.
Lin issued the statement following the Chinese-language Want Weekly’s publication of photographs showing him standing or sitting next to Chao during international trips.
Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) said Lin’s international trips were a “meaningless side issue,” in relation to city concerns over Dome safety.
In response to questions on whether Lin’s future work would be affected, Ko said that city business was conducted “impartially” by city officials as a group, rather than any single person calling shots.
Taipei City Councilor Chen Yen-po (陳彥伯) of the New Party said that while there was nothing wrong with cooperation between academics and corporations, Lin should have excused himself from the city’s investigation into the Dome.
Regardless of the depth of Lin’s ties to Farglory, their existence raised questions about Lin’s impartiality in handling matters related to the firm due to the possibility of a conflict of interest, Chen said.
An exhibition demonstrating the rejuvenation of the indigenous Kuskus Village in Pingtung County’s Mudan Township (牡丹) opened at the Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency’s conservation station in Taipei on Thursday. Agency Director-General Lin Hwa-ching (林華慶) said they have been promoting the use and development of forestry resources to local indigenous residents for eight years to drive regional revitalization. While modern conservation approaches mostly stem from western scientific research, eco-friendly knowledge and skills passed down through generations of indigenous people, who have lived in Taiwan for centuries, could be more suitable for the environment, he said. The agency’s Pingtung branch Director-General Yang Jui-fen (楊瑞芬)
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