President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) and other senior officials support a merger of Hsinchu City and Hsinchu County, Presidential Office spokesman Xavier Chang (張惇涵) announced yesterday following a high-level meeting at the presidential residence.
The attendees, who included senior government officials and other prominent Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) members, discussed key policy measures following Saturday’s referendum, Chang said.
Tsai hopes the party caucus can back government policies while obtaining support from across party lines for the national budget, Chang added, referencing a Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) boycott of the budget bill over what the KMT called partisan campaigning by DPP officials ahead of the referendum.
Photo courtesy of the Hsinchu County Government
There was also a high level of consensus around a proposal to merge Hsinchu city and county in the hopes of grasping the opportunity created by global supply chain restructuring to maintain Taiwan’s competitive advantage in the semiconductor industry, he said.
Hsinchu Mayor Lin Chih-chien (林智堅) of the DPP welcomed the support and appealed to the legislature to make “greater Hsinchu” a reality as soon as possible.
The idea has the support of more than 60 percent of Hsinchu residents, both in the city and county, he said, adding that the merger makes sense from a developmental, administrative and strategic standpoint.
Although he supported the idea as a matter of “vital importance,” Hsinchu County Commissioner Yang Wen-ke (楊文科) of the KMT called for more public debate to reach a consensus.
If the issue is decided from the top down with little regard for the public’s wishes, they would certainly revoke their support, he said, urging the DPP to proceed with caution.
Another proposal raised at the meeting, to merge Chiayi, Chiayi County and Yunlin County into one administrative region, received more circumspection.
Instead of a merger, it would be better to discuss deepening regional cooperation and improving resource allocation, Yunlin County Commissioner Chang Li-shan (張麗善) of the KMT said.
The referendums had just finished and the central government is already rushing to discuss administrative mergers, she said.
It is also curious that every time the merger “weather balloon” is floated, the same senior DPP members are involved, she said, asking if a political machination designed to benefit certain politicians would be good for Taiwan’s long-term development.
Chiayi Mayor Huang Min-hui (黃敏惠) of the KMT said she has yet to see a specific plan for a merger, but any decision would need to take public opinion into account.
Chiayi County Commissioner Weng Chang-liang (翁章梁) of the DPP was more upbeat about the idea, saying it would be good for regional governance and finances, and especially for Chiayi County.
However, it is certain to have a lot of opposing viewpoints, he said, calling for more discussion first.
Additional reporting by Liao Hsueh-ju and Chan Shih-hung
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