Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊) yesterday defended the city government’s decision to halt the opening of the tender for design proposals for a national pop music venue.
“After we publicized an on-line invitation to bidders, many experts specializing in pop music complained that we did not invite pop musicians or experts to evaluate their proposals. So we were wondering whether we should include specialists from pop music circles in the evaluation process,” Chen said.
The city government became the center of a controversy after Hsia Chu-joe (夏鑄九), a professor at National Taiwan University’s Graduate Institute of Building and Planning and one of the original evaluators, on Wednesday accused the city government of ruining the impartiality of the international bidding process.
The city government on March 9 invited international construction companies and architects to submit their designs for the nation’s first pop music and oceanic cultural center, which is to be located at Kaohsiung Harbor. The project is expected to cost NT$5 billion (US$154.3 million).
The submission closed on Monday, while the tender opening was scheduled for Tuesday. The 10 judges were scheduled to evaluate the proposals on Wednesday and yesterday before choosing five potential winning bidders.
The Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper) reported yesterday that the city government had received 137 proposals from architects in countries including Britain, the US, Italy, Spain, Russia.
However, the city government raised eyebrows by adding five pop music professionals to its list of judges on Wednesday last week and announcing that it would halt the tender opening on Tuesday.
Hsia complained to reporters that he did not know the scheduled evaluation process was canceled until he arrived in Kaohsiung via the High Speed Rail on Wednesday morning.
Hsia said the city government had caused itself a great deal of trouble by canceling the scheduled bid opening and evaluation process because many international design teams had flown in to report their ideas.
Chen said yesterday that the city government was trying to make the bidding process “more transparent.”
Chen dismissed the impact of the sudden change, saying “the procedure will only be delayed by one month.”
The Ministry of Economic Affairs has fined Taobao NT$1.2 million (US$36,912) for advertisements that exceed its approved business scope, requiring the Chinese e-commerce platform to make corrections in the first half of this year or its license may be revoked. Lawmakers have called for stricter enforcement of Chinese e-commerce platforms and measures to prevent China from laundering its goods through Taiwan in response to US President Donald Trump’s heavy tariffs on China. The Legislative Yuan’s Finance Committee met today to discuss policies to prevent China from dumping goods in Taiwan, inviting government agencies to report. Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Kuo Kuo-wen (郭國文) said
The Ministry of Economic Affairs has fined Taobao NT$1.2 million (US$36,900) for advertisements that exceeded its approved business scope and ordered the Chinese e-commerce platform to make corrections in the first half of this year or its license would be revoked. Lawmakers have called for stricter supervision of Chinese e-commerce platforms and more stringent measures to prevent China from laundering its goods through Taiwan as US President Donald Trump’s administration cracks down on origin laundering. The legislature’s Finance Committee yesterday met to discuss policies to prevent China from dumping goods in Taiwan, inviting government agencies to report on the matter. Democratic Progressive Party
Taiwan and its Pacific ally Tuvalu on Tuesday signed two accords aimed at facilitating bilateral cooperation on labor affairs, according to Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA). The governments inked two agreements in Taipei, witnessed by Foreign Minister Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) and visiting Deputy Tuvaluan Prime Minister Panapasi Nelesone, MOFA said in a news release. According to MOFA, the agreements will facilitate cooperation on labor issues and allow the two sides to mutually recognize seafarers’ certificates and related training. Taiwan would also continue to collaborate with Tuvalu across various fields to promote economic prosperity as well as the well-being of their
Sung Chien-liang (宋建樑), who led efforts to recall Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lee Kun-cheng (李坤城), was released on bail of NT$80,000 today amid outcry over his decision to wear a Nazi armband to questioning the night before. Sung arrived at the New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office for questioning in a recall petition forgery case last night wearing a red armband bearing a swastika, carrying a copy of Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf and giving a Nazi salute. Sung left the building at 1:15am without the armband and covering the book with his coat. Lee said today that this is a serious
RSS