Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊) yesterday accused the Sports Affairs Council (SAC) of not supporting the city’s hosting of the World Games after the council froze the majority of its budget request.
“I have not seen any support from the SAC, even though Premier Liu [Chao-shiuan, 劉兆玄] previously said the central government was taking the Games seriously,” Chen told reporters at a press conference in Taipei.
“The SAC should give the Kaohsiung Organizing Committee [KOC] an opportunity to account for its budget request ... Without the money, the Games’ project team can’t continue their work,” she said.
Late last month, the SAC slashed NT$270 million (US$7.9 million) from Kaohsiung’s NT$730 million budget request and froze NT$290 million.
SAC Minister Tai Hsia-ling (戴遐齡) said at the time that “many” items on the budget request were “unreasonable” and that the city government had failed to provide comprehensive details of how the money was being spent.
When asked how the city government planned to solve the problem, Chen said: “I’m trying to figure out what to do.”
Earlier yesterday, Chen visited Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) to ask for help. She said the city government would “do something” if she did not see any progress.
In response to Chen’s remarks, SAC International Sports Department Director Chou Ruei (周瑞) said he did not understand why Chen had used the word “oppressive” to describe the SAC’s budget review.
“When former premier Chang Chun-hsiung (張俊雄) decided to provide funding to Kaohsiung to host the World Games in a special budget in 2007, he asked the council to review the use of the special budget in a careful and practical manner,” Chou said.
He said the SAC had frozen part of the budget because they could not tell from the items listed in the plan what exactly the city would do with the money and had asked the city to submit supplementary information.
The supplementary information did not arrive until last Friday and the SAC started reviewing it on Monday, he said, adding that the review was unfinished.
“The SAC supported the city’s bid to host the Games. Why would we want to oppose it now?” Chou said. “As a government employee, we are obligated to look after taxpayers’ money. The budget review will be done lawfully and fairly.”
Meanwhile, the KOC yesterday unveiled details of the Games’ opening ceremony at a press conference in Taipei.
The ceremony will feature a huge fireworks display and light show to highlight Kaohsiung’s status as a harbor city, the KOC said.
Tu Chien-kuo (??, chief planner for the ceremony’s creative team, said “technology, the ocean, steel and light” would be the four major elements of the show.
Show director Lee Hsiao-ping (李小平) said there would be three performances during the opening ceremony, one featuring a giant kite with Aboriginal totems, another featuring Taiwanese folk rituals and a traditional puppet show. The highlight will be a three-minute fireworks display around the stadium that would symbolize waves, Tu said.
New Zealand soprano Hayley Westenra will perform with other international and Taiwanese singers during the ceremony, Tu said.
“The goal is to introduce the beauty of Taiwan to the world,” the show’s chief director Ju Tzong-ching (朱宗慶) said. “I believe international viewers will be touched, while Taiwanese will be proud.”
Ju said 4,000 performers were expected to take part.
KOC board member Liu Shih-fang (劉世芳) said 3,178 athletes from 81 countries were scheduled to participate in the July Games, with Taiwan’s 262 athletes being the largest team.
Tickets for the Games will go on sale on Wednesday at 7-11 stores across the country and will cost between NT$75 and NT$750, Liu said.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY SHELLEY SHAN
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
RSS