New policies proposed by the Taipei City Government only rebrand existing policies and do not offer anything new, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Taipei City Councilor Ho Meng-hua (何孟樺) said yesterday.
The comments came after Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) on Tuesday announced six short-term economic revitalization plans that his administration would implement during the Taiwan Lantern Festival, which runs through Feb. 19.
Chiang’s plans involve a sales promotion, an expansion of the festival, a program to revitalize shopping districts and markets, a campaign focused on value-added agriculture, boosting tourism and stimulus loans.
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
They also involve launching stimulus vouchers at night markets and points programs at designated shops that involve a lottery.
The plans do not amount to a comprehensive strategy, Ho wrote on Facebook yesterday, the first day of the festival, accusing Chiang of trying to deceive Taipei residents.
After the mayor announced the plans, Ho said she contacted the departments involved, but many of them did not know anything about them.
The plans involve at least 11 items that were either implemented last year or are carried out routinely each year, she said.
Chiang’s plan to distribute stimulus vouchers on Dihua Street is based on a plan made by several shopping district promotion associations last year, but his administration claims that it is its own idea, Ho said.
Other measures are insufficient, Ho said, citing a promotion for lantern festival shopping districts with a budget of only NT$120,000 that does not set any goals.
Such plans are ineffective and a waste of funds, she said, calling them worse than plans announced by Chiang’s predecessor, Ko Wen-je (柯文哲).
Taipei Department of Economic Development Director Chen Chun-an (陳俊安) said the Chiang administration’s efforts to revitalize shopping districts is an ongoing project that is under rolling review.
Some of Chiang’s plans are built upon existing measures and add new elements to them, Chen added.
Additional reporting by CNA
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
BITTERLY COLD: The inauguration ceremony for US president-elect Donald Trump has been moved indoors due to cold weather, with the new venue lacking capacity A delegation of cross-party lawmakers from Taiwan, led by Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), for the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump, would not be able to attend the ceremony, as it is being moved indoors due to forecasts of intense cold weather in Washington tomorrow. The inauguration ceremony for Trump and US vice president-elect JD Vance is to be held inside the Capitol Rotunda, which has a capacity of about 2,000 people. A person familiar with the issue yesterday said although the outdoor inauguration ceremony has been relocated, Taiwan’s legislative delegation has decided to head off to Washington as scheduled. The delegation
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
Another wave of cold air would affect Taiwan starting from Friday and could evolve into a continental cold mass, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Temperatures could drop below 10°C across Taiwan on Monday and Tuesday next week, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. Seasonal northeasterly winds could bring rain, he said. Meanwhile, due to the continental cold mass and radiative cooling, it would be cold in northern and northeastern Taiwan today and tomorrow, according to the CWA. From last night to this morning, temperatures could drop below 10°C in northern Taiwan, it said. A thin coat of snow
RSS