To serve more people with comprehensive information about the city, the Taipei City Government is considering cooperating with the Taipei County and Keelung governments to expand its “1999 hotline” service.
The “1999 hotline” is a 24-hour telephone service for people in Taipei launched by the Taipei City Government in 2005. By dialing “1999” from any telephone in Taipei City, residents can access the government service and avoid the hassle of having to call different departments.
While the city government seeks to address the needs of Taipei residents with the hotline, some Taipei County residents have complained about not being able to make inquiries on municipal issues when dialing the number in Taipei County.
MULTIPLE SITES
Huang Chen-hao (黃臣豪), secretary at Taipei City’s Research, Development and Evaluation Commission, said “1999” had also been adopted by Taipei County and Kaohsiung City governments as their service hotline number.
Calls made from Taipei County can now be directed to the call center in the county government. Also, the call center can transfer callers with questions about issues in Taipei City to the city government immediately, Huang said.
Huang said that calls may not be forwarded to the city during the weekend because of the lack of hotline operators at the county government’s call center during that time.
The city government’s 1999 hotline center has 40 daytime operators and 10 nighttime operators seven days a week.
INTEGRATION
Huang said the city government will seek to integrate its 1999 hotline system with the services in Taipei County and Keelung, so that more people in these areas can access government information quickly.
The 1999 call center was modeled on New York City’s “311” hotline and Shanghai’s “12345, Have a Question Call Us” hotline.
Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌), who will visit New York on Aug. 23, will inspect the city’s 311 hotline operations during the trip in an effort to enhance Taipei’s 1999 hotline service.
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