Slightly more than half of Kaohsiung City residents are satisfied with Mayor Chen Chu's (陳菊) performance over the past year, results of a poll released yesterday showed.
The survey, conducted by a pollster company between Dec. 16 and Wednesday at the behest of the municipal government's Research, Development and Evaluation Commission, showed that 51.3 percent of respondents were satisfied with Chen's performance, up from 34.9 percent in a similar poll conducted in March.
Chen was sworn in as mayor on Dec. 25 last year.
A commission official said that 76.5 percent of respondents were proud of being Kaohsiung residents, while 69.8 percent believed the city has a promising future.
More than 64 percent of respondents said that they were pleased with the performance of the city government, up slightly from 61.7 percent in the March survey, the official said.
Respondents said they were most satisfied with the city government's efforts to improve the city's image and promote tourism, while expressing the highest dissatisfaction on law and order, the economy and road conditions, the official said.
Chen's approval rating has been on a steady rise since March, breaking the 50 percent mark for the first time this month, the official said, adding that this indicated that her intensive efforts had won the recognition of city residents.
Chen, for her part, said she pays great attention to residents' level of satisfaction with the various aspects of the city and her administration, describing any dissatisfaction among residents as a force driving her administration to make progress.
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