Taipei and New Taipei City have adopted a reserved stance on Keelung’s bid to be upgraded to a special municipality.
More than half of Keelung residents supported the upgrade in a survey conducted by the local government last year, Keelung Department of Civil Affairs Director Chang Yuan-hsiang (張淵翔) said on Saturday.
Most Keelung residents backed the plan to merge the city with Taipei and New Taipei cities into a new special municipality, Chang added.
Photo courtesy of Hsieh Chih-huang
There are six special municipalities in Taiwan — Taipei, New Taipei City, Taoyuan, Taichung, Tainan and Kaohsiung — while Keelung is an autonomous municipality, which is a second-level administrative division.
The Keelung City Government has allocated an additional budget of NT$3 million (US$93,023) this year to hold forums, carry out surveys on the city’s i-Voting online polling platform and conduct referendums to build consensus on the issue, Chang said.
The Taipei and New Taipei governments have been neutral toward the bid.
Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) has been promoting close exchanges in the metropolitan area — including Keelung, Taipei, New Taipei City and Taoyuan — since he took office, the Taipei City Government said.
A partnership has been established among the four cities on issues of shared concern such as transportation, environment and sustainability, it said, adding that Taipei is to continue working with its partners.
The New Taipei City Government said that the four cities form a “common living circle” and would continue to work closely.
The New Taipei City Government said that it would respect the public’s opinion on Keelung’s upgrade plan.
The central government should review the issue comprehensively as part of a master plan, it said.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Keelung City Councilor Cheng Kai-ling (鄭愷玲) said she supported allocating the budget in preparation for the upgrade.
The biggest challenge Keelung is facing is that its population is not big enough, she said.
Forums should be held to discuss how Keelung could be merged with Taipei and New Taipei, and seek consensus, she added.
Taipei should be merged with Keelung as the nation’s capital should have an airport and a port, Independent Keelung City Councilor Chang Keng-hui (張耿輝) said.
Such a merger should take New Taipei City’s Sijhih District (汐止) into consideration as it is located between Keelung and Taipei, he added.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Keelung City Councilor Cheng Wen-ting (鄭文婷) said that Keelung’s citizens are looking forward to the upgrade, but Keelung Mayor George Hsieh (謝國樑) should first elaborate on the details to the city council.
DPP Keelung City Councilor Chang Hao-han (張顥瀚) said the upgrade would have a wide impact, but the Keelung City Government failed to propose a concrete plan.
When asked about the issue by reporters, some Keelung citizens agreed that the city should merge with Taipei, while some said that it is more reasonable for Keelung to merge with its seven neighboring districts including New Taipei City’s Jinshan (金山), Wanli (萬里) and Rueifang (瑞芳) districts.
Keelung cannot be upgraded without merging with other cities, according to the Local Government Act (地方制度法), said Cheng An-ting (鄭安廷), an academic at National Chengchi University’s Department of Land Economics.
If Keelung were to be merged with Taipei and New Taipei City, it would not be a political center and its importance would lessen, he said.
On the other hand, the upgrade could help promote resource integration, he said, adding that Keelung residents should carefully consider the pros and cons of a potential upgrade.
Additional reporting by Lin Cheng-hung
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