The mayors of Taipei and New Taipei City on Thursday signed a contract to host the 2025 World Masters Games, an international sporting competition for athletes aged 30 or older.
Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) and New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜) formalized the agreement in a video call with Kai Holm and Jens Holm, president and chief executive officer respectively of the International Masters Games Association, which organizes the event.
The Games, which are held every four years, involve a wide range of sports, with athletes competing as individuals rather than in national teams.
Photo: CNA
Taipei and New Taipei City were confirmed as the hosts in October, edging out Paris and the Australian city of Perth to host the Games’ 2025 edition, which is scheduled for May 17 to May 30.
In a pre-recorded video message played at the contract signing, President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said that Taiwan aims to host the most successful edition of the Games ever and would do its utmost to realize the ideal of “Sports for All.”
The nation would build on its experience hosting international sporting competitions, including the 2009 Deaflympics in Taipei, the 2009 World Games in Kaohsiung and the 2017 Taipei Summer Universiade, Tsai said, adding that the entire country would support the host cities.
When Taipei and New Taipei City announced the hosting rights, Taipei Deputy Mayor Tsai Ping-kun (蔡炳坤) said that about 48,000 athletes and their families from 110 countries are expected to visit Taiwan for the Games, which features 32 sports.
It is estimated that the Games will cost about NT$1.6 billion (US$56.3 million), he said at the time.
The Games are expected to bring in NT$10 billion in tourism revenue, said Li Tzai-li (李再立), head of the Taipei Sports Department.
The World Masters Games, launched in 1985 in Toronto, are usually held the year after the Olympics.
The previous edition was in Auckland, New Zealand, in 2017, while the next is to be hosted in Japan’s Kansai region in 2022, one year after originally scheduled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
OVERHAUL NEEDED: The government should improve its agricultural processing capabilities and expand to new markets to limit its reliance on China, an expert said China’s ban on Taiwanese pineapples was “unsurprising,” and Taiwan should have years ago altered its produce export strategies and target customers, experts said. China on Friday abruptly suspended imports of pineapples from Taiwan, saying that it had on multiple occasions discovered “harmful biological entities” on the fruit. Calling it an “unfriendly” move, the Council of Agriculture (COA) said that 99.79 percent of the pineapples sent to China since last year have met China’s import standards. Chiao Chun (焦鈞), the author of Fruits and Politics — A Recollection of Cross-strait Agricultural Interaction Over the Past Decade (水果政治學：兩岸農業交流十年回顧與展望), said that China’s announcement is clearly targeting
‘NOT COLD ENOUGH’: Schools are disregarding Premier Su Tseng-chang’s instruction that students may wear out-of-uniform clothing to stay warm, an association said An investigative report revealed that 72.5 percent of the nation’s senior-high schools and 95.6 percent of junior-high schools punish students for wearing unapproved winter clothes in contravention of educational guidelines, lawmakers and student rights advocates said yesterday. Speaking at a news conference at the Legislative Yuan, the Taiwan Youth Association for Democracy said there is an endemic disregard for the Ministry of Education’s regulations and that private schools are more likely to contravene ministry rules. The report is a compilation of 2,856 student reports about dress code reinforcement at 425 high schools and vocational high schools, the association said. Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌)
DISSATISFACTION? If the referendums collect more than 700,000 signatures each, they would have gotten the most signatures in the shortest time, the party said The Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) two referendum petitions — one on banning the importation of pork with traces of ractopamine and the other on holding referendums on the same day as national elections — had as of Thursday gathered 691,398 and 674,497 signatures respectively, the party said yesterday. If the petitions collect more than 700,000 signatures apiece, they would have garnered the most signatures in the shortest time since the Referendum Act (公民投票法) was amended in 2017, party officials said. The KMT proposed the “anti-ractopamine pork” or “food safety” referendum just days after President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) announcement on Aug. 28 last
DECADES OF INFLUENCE: Over the past 20 years, China has made inroads with Aborigines, funding political campaigns and trips, a legislator said Lawmakers have called on the National Security Bureau to investigate claims of pervasive Chinese influence among Aboriginal communities. Legislators pointed to a surge in communist propaganda and Chinese-funded projects over the past few years, which they say are aimed at infiltrating and buying political influence among Aboriginal communities. “China has for decades carried out wide-ranging ‘united front’ tactics and propaganda campaigns targeting Aborigines,” said Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chen Ying (陳瑩), a member of the Puyuma community in Taitung County. “Now, they are influencing elections for local councilors and village chiefs, offering money for candidates to mount their campaigns, and to
RSS