Thu, Aug 16, 2018 page3

• Ting launches policy advisory team

  PERFORMANCE: The KMT Taipei mayoral candidate questioned Mayor Ko Wen-je’s accomplishments, saying he had done little to advance the city’s development

  • By Chien Huei-ru / Staff reporter
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  Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Taipei mayoral candidate Ting Shou-chung (丁守中) yesterday introduced his team of Taipei policy advisers, headed by Taipei City Council Speaker Wu Pi-chu (吳碧珠), as he began a series of campaign events to promote his platforms.

  The former legislator visited the KMT Taipei City Council caucus for the first time and asked KMT city councilors to lend him their support in the Nov. 24 election.

  Ting said he welcomes any criticism from city councilors, who are more familiar with city policies, functions and local needs.

  

  Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Taipei mayoral candidate TIng Shou-chung, right, introduces his team of Taipei policy advisers, headed by Taipei City Council Speaker Wu Pi-chu, center, at a news conference yesterday in Taipei.

  Photo: Chien Hui-ju, Taipei Times

  With their support, Ting said he is confident of winning.

  He also asked city councilors to spread the good word about him and said he hopes to collaborate with them in promoting their platforms.

  With the election just 100 days away, anything could happen, KMT Taipei chapter director Huang Lu Ching-ju (黃呂錦茹) said.

  Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) has achieved little in the past four years, and most of what he did was to turn the city into a show business entity by catering to netizens and making shallow remarks, she said.

  Ting’s team of advisers would focus on policymaking and support Ting by supervising Ko in a professional manner, she said.

  “In the past four years we have been very unhappy with Ko, whose policies have caused a lot of panic among residents,” Wu said, adding that she hopes Ting and KMT city councilor candidates could work together to critique and supervise Ko.

  Questioning the wisdom of Ko’s self-professed frugality, Ting said that Ko claims to excel at saving money, but this has been done at the expense of residents’ welfare and the city’s development.

  Most parents have been unable to enroll their children in public kindergartens; public transportation in Wenshan District (文山) is lacking; and the MRT line does not connect Taipei Zoo and Dapinglin Station, he said.

  According to the city government’s budget request, Ko is planning to spend several billions of New Taiwan dollars in projects, such as expanding a fine arts museum, setting up a music library and constructing an animal shelter, but did not provide details about the plans, the policy advisory team said.

  Ko has not planned any budget for common expenditures, such as childcare subsidies and renovation of traditional markets, it said.

  The team accused Ko of spending more money on repaying debts than building infrastructure, citing the municipal government’s large self-liquidating debts.

  Citing statistics from the National Treasury Administration, the team said that the Taipei City Government’s self-liquidating debts, at NT$164.5 billion (US$5.3 billion), is the highest among the nation’s administrative regions and second only to that of the central government.
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