Local governments should pursue “effective governance,” former minister of the interior Lee Hong-yuan (李鴻源) said in a recent interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper).
“There is so much a local government can do. The biggest problem with Taiwan is the flawed strategic planning of municipal policies, which in turn causes trouble when they are implemented,” said Lee, who stepped down as minister in February and was viewed as a potential New Taipei City mayoral candidate for the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) before incumbent Eric Chu (朱立倫) announced his re-election bid.
“The central government lacks advisers that it can consult on the nation’s strategic policymaking and the ensuing regional integration,” he said.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
Citing Keelung as example, Lee said the city, which has a population of only 400,000, has to look to Taipei and New Taipei City before planning its infrastructure, so as to avoid unnecessary expenditure.
However, Taipei rarely discusses anything with New Taipei City before it embarks on an infrastructure project, he said, adding that insufficient communication between the two metropolises nearly resulted in the establishment of two national theaters a five-minute drive apart from each other.
About one-third of the infrastructure plans of Taipei and New Taipei City are the same, he said.
The three northern municipalities need to work closely together and carry out comprehensive planning so that the Greater Taipei area can stand a better chance of competing with international metropolises such as Shanghai, Hong Kong, Singapore and Seoul, Lee said.
Similarly, all other municipalities, including outlying islands, need to identify their roles in the overall strategic planning of national policies according to their strengths rather than copying one another, he said.
For example, Greater Taichung should make use of its position as the municipality closest to China, while Greater Kaohsiung could be the nation’s springboard for tapping Southeast Asian markets, he said.
They each serve a different purpose and thus should have different city policies and infrastructure, he added.
“Is it really necessary to have so many municipalities in such a small nation? The key is effective governance,” he said.
Lee also stressed the importance of “cross-sector dialogue,” citing as an example the Jhonggang drainage project, which he sprearheaded during his stint as Taipei County deputy commissioner.
Aside from gathering officials from the Department of Transportation, the Department of Health and hydraulic engineers to discuss the initiative, he said he hosted more than 100 policy forums with historians and cultural experts, as well as residents of Sinjhuang (新莊) to keep them informed about the details and benefits of the project.
At first, residents fiercely opposed the project when they heard that it would cost them 400 parking spots, “so I found 300 new ones for them within two months,” Lee said.
“Furthermore, I uploaded every detail about the drainage project onto the Internet to ensure transparency, and set a seven-day time limit for relevant agencies to answer queries from the general public. It was on that same platform that the heads of departments exchanged their opinions,” he said.
“It was a learning experience for both the residents and civil servants of Sinjhuang,” he aded.
Asked whether Taipei needed another reservoir like the legendary Liugongjun — a canal system which once covered the city’s water transportation and irrigation system — he responded, as if offering advice to local governments today: “Why don’t you ask Taipei residents?”
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday said it is fully aware of the situation following reports that the son of ousted Chinese politician Bo Xilai (薄熙來) has arrived in Taiwan and is to marry a Taiwanese. Local media reported that Bo Guagua (薄瓜瓜), son of the former member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, is to marry the granddaughter of Luodong Poh-Ai Hospital founder Hsu Wen-cheng (許文政). The pair met when studying abroad and arranged to get married this year, with the wedding breakfast to be held at The One holiday resort in Hsinchu
An orange gas cloud that leaked from a waste management plant yesterday morning in Taoyuan’s Guanyin District (觀音) was likely caused by acidic waste, authorities said, adding that it posed no immediate harm. The leak occurred at a plant in the district’s Environmental Science and Technology Park at about 7am, the Taoyuan Fire Department said. Firefighters discovered a cloud of unidentified orange gas leaking from a waste tank when they arrived on the site, it said, adding that they put on Level A chemical protection before entering the building. After finding there was no continuous leak, the department worked with the city’s Department
‘SIGN OF DANGER’: Beijing has never directly named Taiwanese leaders before, so China is saying that its actions are aimed at the DPP, a foundation official said National Security Bureau (NSB) Director-General Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥) yesterday accused Beijing of spreading propaganda, saying that Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) had singled out President William Lai (賴清德) in his meeting with US President Joe Biden when talking about those whose “true nature” seek Taiwanese independence. The Biden-Xi meeting took place on the sidelines of the APEC summit in Peru on Saturday. “If the US cares about maintaining peace across the Taiwan Strait, it is crucial that it sees clearly the true nature of Lai and the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in seeking Taiwanese independence, handles the Taiwan question with extra
The Taipei Zoo on Saturday said it would pursue legal action against a man who was filmed climbing over a railing to tease and feed spotted hyenas in their enclosure earlier that day. In videos uploaded to social media on Saturday, a man can be seen climbing over a protective railing and approaching a ledge above the zoo’s spotted hyena enclosure, before dropping unidentified objects down to two of the animals. The Taipei Zoo in a statement said the man’s actions were “extremely inappropriate and even illegal.” In addition to monitoring the hyenas’ health, the zoo would collect evidence provided by the public
RSS