Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) yesterday issued an ultimatum to Farglory Group (遠雄集團), saying that it has three months to comply with the Taipei City Government’s terms for continuing work on the construction of the Taipei Dome, before he moves to dissolve the build-operate-transfer contract with the developer.
Ko made the remarks during a report to the Taipei City Council, announcing a list of his demands to Farglory to be filed on Monday next week, comprising of seven safety-related items and 39 contract revisions.
The safety standard demands are to include a mandate for new safety evaluations of the site, as well as reductions in the size of the stadium’s commercial zone and its maximum occupancy, while the city also wants contractual revisions be made to 39 items that the Control Yuan had designated as improper.
Photo: CNA
In his report to city councilors, Ko also issued an apology to Taipei residents, saying: “I am sorry; I understand the public’s frustration, but I must insist on solving the situation now, so as to prevent the same problems from happening again.”
The city government had filed more than 300 documents to negotiate the continuation of the project in good faith, but Farglory spurned the city’s efforts by responding with delaying tactics and treating the dispute as an “essay-writing contest,” Ko said.
The Taiwan Architecture and Building Center (台灣建築中心) had not issued its approval of the stadium after a year-long fire safety evaluation of the structure and Farglory had failed to follow the approved blueprints, he said.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
Ko said that the city faces many challenges, including the “extremely unfavorable” terms of the original contract that enable Farglory to pay no more than NT$3 million (US$91,866) for not fulfilling its obligations, while mandating the city government to buy back the contract at an evaluated market price.
Ko said that the nation’s justice system has proved “erratic” and “unworthy of public trust,” in punishing bribery with a NT$200 million fine rather than a prison sentence, in an apparent snipe at Chao Teng-hsiung (趙藤雄), a former Farglory chairman who was convicted of bribery with his sentence suspended for five years and was fined NT$200 million, characterizing the ruling as “putting a price on justice.”
In response to questions from Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Taipei City Councilor Chin Huei-chu (秦慧珠), Ko said the city would not go to arbitration for the dispute, adding: “We will unilaterally dissolve the contract. If [Chao] is unhappy, he is free to litigate.”
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
Ko told Republican Party City Councilor Hsu Shih-hsun (徐世勳) that in the absence of a resolution satisfactory to the city government, demolishing the stadium “remains an option.”
Farglory Dome Co general-manager Jacky Yang (楊舜欽) accused Ko of using public safety standards in a manner that is “tantamount to blackmail” and of violating the principles of “a nation of laws” by “trampling on a private enterprise.”
The city government has the right to unilaterally dissolve any freely entered contract, but Taipei residents should know that the ensuing litigation would result in liabilities that are substantially greater than the mutually agreed sum that was stipulated in the original contract, Yang said.
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
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
SHARED VALUES: The US, Taiwan and other allies hope to maintain the cross-strait ‘status quo’ to foster regional prosperity and growth, the former US vice president said Former US vice president Mike Pence yesterday vowed to continue to support US-Taiwan relations, and to defend the security and interests of both countries and the free world. At a meeting with President William Lai (賴清德) at the Presidential Office in Taipei, Pence said that the US and Taiwan enjoy strong and continued friendship based on the shared values of freedom, the rule of law and respect for human rights. Such foundations exceed limitations imposed by geography and culture, said Pence, who is visiting Taiwan for the first time. The US and Taiwan have shared interests, and Americans are increasingly concerned about China’s
RSS