The Taipei City Government and the Farglory Land Development Co (遠雄建設) last night agreed to renegotiate the Taipei Dome contract, with Farglory promising to complete construction by end of the year.
Taipei City Government spokesman Sidney Lin (林鶴明) announced the agreement following a one-hour meeting between Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) and representatives of the firm on the future of the project.
The Taipei Dome and Farglory’s contract had become a source of controversy in recent days as Ko and his administrative team began looking at several major projects either underway or in the proposal stage.
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
Prior to last night’s meeting, Ko had said the Dome contract would have to be revised to increase the penalties for failing to meet deadlines. He also said discrepancies between the initial contract terms during the bidding process and the firm’s final contract needed to be discussed.
“Farglory has already gone past the deadline for completing the project, in violation of the contract,” Ko said earlier yesterday, adding that the original contract’s penalty clauses “do not have any real impact,” because they only allow the city government to fine the firm a total of NT$3 million (US$95,300) for violations.
Over the weekend, Ko had called the penalty clauses “ridiculous.”
In addition, while the Control Yuan in 2009 ordered the city to revise 39 questionable articles in the contract for the project, the previous administration did nothing to address the revisions, Ko said before the meeting.
Taipei Dome Project executive secretary Hu Pei-lun (胡培倫) said that while previous negotiations between the city and the firm on revising the questionable articles had led to an initial consensus, the negotiations broke down after Farglory refused to agree to the city’s demands.
In related news, the Department of Rapid Transit Systems yesterday released its plans for unilateral changes to a controversial underground tunnel between the dome and National Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall.
Ko had previously called the design of tunnel — which was supposed to be used in case the Dome needed to be evacuated — “weird” for requiring pedestrians to pass through narrow passages lined with commercial stall space.
Department of Rapid Transit Systems Commissioner Chou Li-liang (周禮良) said the redesigned tunnel — with the commercial space removed — would meet evacuation needs, while cutting costs substantially and reducing the number of trees which would have to be transplanted.
He said the new tunnel could be constructed in time for the 2017 Universiade.
Farglory executives last week said that revising the tunnel design could prevent the Dome being available for the Games.
Additional reporting by staff writer
This story has been updated since it was originally published.
EXPRESSING GRATITUDE: Without its Taiwanese partners which are ‘working around the clock,’ Nvidia could not meet AI demand, CEO Jensen Huang said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and US-based artificial intelligence (AI) chip designer Nvidia Corp have partnered with each other on silicon photonics development, Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said. Speaking with reporters after he met with TSMC chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家) in Taipei on Friday, Huang said his company was working with the world’s largest contract chipmaker on silicon photonics, but admitted it was unlikely for the cooperation to yield results any time soon, and both sides would need several years to achieve concrete outcomes. To have a stake in the silicon photonics supply chain, TSMC and
‘DETERRENT’: US national security adviser-designate Mike Waltz said that he wants to speed up deliveries of weapons purchased by Taiwan to deter threats from China US president-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for US secretary of defense, Pete Hegseth, affirmed his commitment to peace in the Taiwan Strait during his confirmation hearing in Washington on Tuesday. Hegseth called China “the most comprehensive and serious challenge to US national security” and said that he would aim to limit Beijing’s expansion in the Indo-Pacific region, Voice of America reported. He would also adhere to long-standing policies to prevent miscalculations, Hegseth added. The US Senate Armed Services Committee hearing was the first for a nominee of Trump’s incoming Cabinet, and questions mostly focused on whether he was fit for the
IDENTITY: Compared with other platforms, TikTok’s algorithm pushes a ‘disproportionately high ratio’ of pro-China content, a study has found Young Taiwanese are increasingly consuming Chinese content on TikTok, which is changing their views on identity and making them less resistant toward China, researchers and politicians were cited as saying by foreign media. Asked to suggest the best survival strategy for a small country facing a powerful neighbor, students at National Chia-Yi Girls’ Senior High School said “Taiwan must do everything to avoid provoking China into attacking it,” the Financial Times wrote on Friday. Young Taiwanese between the ages of 20 and 24 in the past were the group who most strongly espoused a Taiwanese identity, but that is no longer
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake and several aftershocks battered southern Taiwan early this morning, causing houses and roads to collapse and leaving dozens injured and 50 people isolated in their village. A total of 26 people were reported injured and sent to hospitals due to the earthquake as of late this morning, according to the latest Ministry of Health and Welfare figures. In Sising Village (西興) of Chiayi County's Dapu Township (大埔), the location of the quake's epicenter, severe damage was seen and roads entering the village were blocked, isolating about 50 villagers. Another eight people who were originally trapped inside buildings in Tainan
RSS