Hsinchu City surpassed Taipei to take first place in an annual competitiveness ranking of Taiwan’s cities and counties, marking the first time that the capital has lost the top spot, the Chinese-language Global Views magazine reported yesterday.
Taipei had been ranked the nation’s most competitive city since the magazine began compiling the rankings in 2003, and it still scored highest in four out of the nine indicators this year, the magazine said.
Taipei had the top score in “economy and employment,” “education and culture,” “healthcare” and “local government finances,” it said.
The capital also ranked among the top five in three other indicators: “environmental protection and quality of the environment” (4th), “quality of life and modernization” (3rd) and “social welfare” (4th).
However, Taipei’s low rankings in “crime rates and policing” (10th) and “traffic and fire safety” (16th) dragged down its final score, the magazine said.
Hsinchu placed in the top five in eight of the nine indicators — it placed sixth in “quality of life and modernization” — a feat none of the other cities or counties were able to achieve, the results showed.
Trailing Hsinchu and Taipei were New Taipei City, Taichung, Taoyuan and Taitung County.
Of the six special municipalities, Kaohsiung ranked lowest at 16th. At the bottom of the table were Chiayi County (17th), Nantou County (18th) and Miaoli County (19th).
The outlying counties of Penghu, Kinmen and Lienchiang were not included in the annual rankings due to a lack of data, the magazine said.
This year’s rankings were calculated based on data mostly from last year, with some from 2018 and 2017, the magazine said.
Hsinchu Mayor Lin Chih-chien (林智堅) said that it is hard to surpass Taipei, as “all of the resources are centered there.”
Hsinchu was only able to achieve the feat thanks to the hard work of its residents, Lin said.
Travel agencies in Taiwan are working to secure alternative flights for travelers bound for New Zealand for the Lunar New Year holiday, as Air New Zealand workers are set to strike next week. The airline said that it has confirmed that the planned industrial action by its international wide-body cabin crew would go ahead on Thursday and Friday next week. While the Auckland-based carrier pledged to take reasonable measures to mitigate the impact of the workers’ strike, an Air New Zealand flight arriving at Taipei from Auckland on Thursday and another flight departing from Taipei for Auckland on Saturday would have to
The Taipei City Government yesterday confirmed that it has negotiated a royalties of NT$12.2 billion (US$380 million) with artificial intelligence (AI) chip giant Nvidia Corp, with the earliest possible signing date set for Wednesday next week. The city has been preparing for Nvidia to build its Taiwan headquarters in Beitou-Shilin Technology Park since last year, and the project has now entered its final stage before the contract is signed. Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) said the city government has completed the royalty price negotiations and would now push through the remaining procedures to sign the contract before
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday said the name of the Taiwanese Representative Office in Lithuania was agreed by both sides, after Lithuania’s prime minister described a 2021 decision to let Taiwan set up a de facto embassy in Vilnius as a “mistake.” Lithuanian Prime Minister Inga Ruginiene, who entered office in September last year, told the Baltic News Service on Tuesday that Lithuania had begun taking “small first steps” aimed at restoring ties with Beijing. The ministry in a statement said that Taiwan and Lithuania are important partners that share the values of freedom and democracy. Since the establishment of the
Taipei Zoo welcomes the Lunar New Year this year through its efforts to protect an endangered species of horse native to central Asia that was once fully extinct outside of captivity. The festival ushering in the Year of the Horse would draw attention to the zoo’s four specimens of Przewalski’s horse, named for a Russian geographer who first encountered them in the late 19th century across the steppes of western Mongolia. “Visitors will look at the horses and think that since this is the Year of the Horse: ‘I want to get to know horses,’” said zookeeper Chen Yun-chieh, who has been
RSS