Minister of Culture Cheng Li-chiun (鄭麗君) yesterday touted the ministry’s plans to develop ultra-broadband and “revisit historic scenes” as “very forward-looking” in her explanation of its request for NT$21.46 billion (US$711.6 million) in funds earmarked for the Cabinet’s Forward-looking Infrastructure Development Program.
The ministry has submitted subsidy requests of NT$5.66 billion and NT$15.8 billion respectively for its “revisiting historic scenes” and “digital infrastructure construction” projects, Cheng said at a meeting of the legislature’s Education and Culture Committee.
The projects would be carried out from this year to 2020, with some work set to continue until 2021, she said.
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
“Revisiting historic scenes,” which was listed as an urban and rural construction project under the Cabinet’s plan, would maintain and reinvent historic sites.
It is to incorporate technology into historic sites’ introductions to provide visitors with a better understanding of their historical context, she said.
The project is the first in the nation’s history to incorporate the concept of “cultural governance,” which represents a major step forward, the minister said.
Cultural sites should be added through maintaining and revitalizing existing ones rather than building new ones, which would benefit urban and rural development, Cheng said, adding that future projects proposed by the ministry would be reviewed according to this principle.
The “digital infrastructure construction” project includes plans to develop ultra-broadband services, produce high-resolution television shows, and create TV programs and movies that focus on Taiwanese culture, she said.
The project is to include the establishment of a national cultural database, the creation of TV shows with 4K resolution and the development of over-the-top content — or content distributed online without subscribing to a traditional service — in response to the rise of new media, she said.
Underlining the importance of Taiwanese culture in the broadcasting and film industries, Cheng said that even if bandwidth is upgraded, it would only be “serving other nations’ cultures” if there are no programs that promote Taiwanese culture.
Police have issued warnings against traveling to Cambodia or Thailand when others have paid for the travel fare in light of increasing cases of teenagers, middle-aged and elderly people being tricked into traveling to these countries and then being held for ransom. Recounting their ordeal, one victim on Monday said she was asked by a friend to visit Thailand and help set up a bank account there, for which they would be paid NT$70,000 to NT$100,000 (US$2,136 to US$3,051). The victim said she had not found it strange that her friend was not coming along on the trip, adding that when she
TRAGEDY: An expert said that the incident was uncommon as the chance of a ground crew member being sucked into an IDF engine was ‘minuscule’ A master sergeant yesterday morning died after she was sucked into an engine during a routine inspection of a fighter jet at an air base in Taichung, the Air Force Command Headquarters said. The officer, surnamed Hu (胡), was conducting final landing checks at Ching Chuan Kang (清泉崗) Air Base when she was pulled into the jet’s engine for unknown reasons, the air force said in a news release. She was transported to a hospital for emergency treatment, but could not be revived, it said. The air force expressed its deepest sympathies over the incident, and vowed to work with authorities as they
A tourist who was struck and injured by a train in a scenic area of New Taipei City’s Pingsi District (平溪) on Monday might be fined for trespassing on the tracks, the Railway Police Bureau said yesterday. The New Taipei City Fire Department said it received a call at 4:37pm on Monday about an incident in Shifen (十分), a tourist destination on the Pingsi Railway Line. After arriving on the scene, paramedics treated a woman in her 30s for a 3cm to 5cm laceration on her head, the department said. She was taken to a hospital in Keelung, it said. Surveillance footage from a
INFRASTRUCTURE: Work on the second segment, from Kaohsiung to Pingtung, is expected to begin in 2028 and be completed by 2039, the railway bureau said Planned high-speed rail (HSR) extensions would blanket Taiwan proper in four 90-minute commute blocs to facilitate regional economic and livelihood integration, Railway Bureau Deputy Director-General Yang Cheng-chun (楊正君) said in an interview published yesterday. A project to extend the high-speed rail from Zuoying Station in Kaohsiung to Pingtung County’s Lioukuaicuo Township (六塊厝) is the first part of the bureau’s greater plan to expand rail coverage, he told the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times). The bureau’s long-term plan is to build a loop to circle Taiwan proper that would consist of four sections running from Taipei to Hualien, Hualien to
RSS