New policies proposed by the Taipei City Government only rebrand existing policies and do not offer anything new, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Taipei City Councilor Ho Meng-hua (何孟樺) said yesterday.
The comments came after Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) on Tuesday announced six short-term economic revitalization plans that his administration would implement during the Taiwan Lantern Festival, which runs through Feb. 19.
Chiang’s plans involve a sales promotion, an expansion of the festival, a program to revitalize shopping districts and markets, a campaign focused on value-added agriculture, boosting tourism and stimulus loans.
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
They also involve launching stimulus vouchers at night markets and points programs at designated shops that involve a lottery.
The plans do not amount to a comprehensive strategy, Ho wrote on Facebook yesterday, the first day of the festival, accusing Chiang of trying to deceive Taipei residents.
After the mayor announced the plans, Ho said she contacted the departments involved, but many of them did not know anything about them.
The plans involve at least 11 items that were either implemented last year or are carried out routinely each year, she said.
Chiang’s plan to distribute stimulus vouchers on Dihua Street is based on a plan made by several shopping district promotion associations last year, but his administration claims that it is its own idea, Ho said.
Other measures are insufficient, Ho said, citing a promotion for lantern festival shopping districts with a budget of only NT$120,000 that does not set any goals.
Such plans are ineffective and a waste of funds, she said, calling them worse than plans announced by Chiang’s predecessor, Ko Wen-je (柯文哲).
Taipei Department of Economic Development Director Chen Chun-an (陳俊安) said the Chiang administration’s efforts to revitalize shopping districts is an ongoing project that is under rolling review.
Some of Chiang’s plans are built upon existing measures and add new elements to them, Chen added.
Additional reporting by CNA
Taiwanese were praised for their composure after a video filmed by Taiwanese tourists capturing the moment a magnitude 7.5 earthquake struck Japan’s Aomori Prefecture went viral on social media. The video shows a hotel room shaking violently amid Monday’s quake, with objects falling to the ground. Two Taiwanese began filming with their mobile phones, while two others held the sides of a TV to prevent it from falling. When the shaking stopped, the pair calmly took down the TV and laid it flat on a tatami mat, the video shows. The video also captured the group talking about the safety of their companions bathing
US climber Alex Honnold is to attempt to scale Taipei 101 without a rope and harness in a live Netflix special on Jan. 24, the streaming platform announced on Wednesday. Accounting for the time difference, the two-hour broadcast of Honnold’s climb, called Skyscraper Live, is to air on Jan. 23 in the US, Netflix said in a statement. Honnold, 40, was the first person ever to free solo climb the 900m El Capitan rock formation in Yosemite National Park — a feat that was recorded and later made into the 2018 documentary film Free Solo. Netflix previewed Skyscraper Live in October, after videos
Starting on Jan. 1, YouBike riders must have insurance to use the service, and a six-month trial of NT$5 coupons under certain conditions would be implemented to balance bike shortages, a joint statement from transportation departments across Taipei, New Taipei City and Taoyuan announced yesterday. The rental bike system operator said that coupons would be offered to riders to rent bikes from full stations, for riders who take out an electric-assisted bike from a full station, and for riders who return a bike to an empty station. All riders with YouBike accounts are automatically eligible for the program, and each membership account
A classified Pentagon-produced, multiyear assessment — the Overmatch brief — highlighted unreported Chinese capabilities to destroy US military assets and identified US supply chain choke points, painting a disturbing picture of waning US military might, a New York Times editorial published on Monday said. US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s comments in November last year that “we lose every time” in Pentagon-conducted war games pitting the US against China further highlighted the uncertainty about the US’ capability to intervene in the event of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. “It shows the Pentagon’s overreliance on expensive, vulnerable weapons as adversaries field cheap, technologically
RSS