Pan-green politicians yesterday rejected a claim by Hon Hai Precision Industry Co founder Terry Gou (郭台銘) that Kaohsiung is lacking in economic activity and has “nothing left” but concerts and entertainment events to attract tourists.
“Right now for Kaohsiung, the trendy thing is the ‘music concert economy,’ but this economy cannot sustain a city of 2 million,” Gou said at a rally in Kaohsiung’s Fongshan District (鳳山) on Sunday, during his campaign to win the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) nomination for next year’s presidential election.
He said Kaohsiung in the past had a unique role in national economic planning with previous governments, as it focused on export processing and manufacturing, eventually becoming the world’s largest container-shipping port.
Photo: Lee Hui-chou, Taipei Times
“But now the city has nothing left” but the entertainment industry, he said.
Gou was referring to recent top acts that performed at Kaohsiung venues, boosting the city’s tourism and hospitality sectors.
They included concerts by South Korean quartet Blackpink, veteran Taiwanese band Mayday (五月天) and pop singer A-mei (張惠妹), as well as the two-day Megaport Music Festival featuring several domestic and international rock and rap artists.
DPP Legislator Hsu Chih-chieh (許智傑), who represents Kaohsiung’s Fongshan District (鳳山), yesterday denounced Gou for speaking so poorly about the city
Gou “lacks understanding” of the Kaohsiung’s progress on broadening its economy over the past two decades, Hsu said.
“Kaohsiung has made giant strides, including Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co building a chip plant in the city,” he said.
“The Smart City manufacturing base includes [Gou’s] own Hon Hai [Precision] Industry, along with several large investment projects by international firms,” Hsu said. “Kaohsiung’s economy has seen much growth, and it will only get better.”
Independent Kaohsiung City Councilor Huang Jie (黃捷) said that past KMT administrations in the city focused on its role solely as an industrial manufacturing base for heavy industries, including oil refineries, petrochemical plants, shipbuilding and steel production.
“These have left Kaohsiung with pollution and road congestion due to a lack of urban planning and other problems,” Huang said.
The city’s transformation began when former DPP mayors including Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) and Chen Chu (陳菊), and current Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) pushed for cultural programs and large public projects, including a sports stadium, music center and mass rapid transit system, she said.
CHANGING LANDSCAPE: Many of the part-time programs for educators were no longer needed, as many teachers obtain a graduate degree before joining the workforce, experts said Taiwanese universities this year canceled 86 programs, Ministry of Education data showed, with educators attributing the closures to the nation’s low birthrate as well as shifting trends. Fifty-three of the shuttered programs were part-time postgraduate degree programs, about 62 percent of the total, the most in the past five years, the data showed. National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU) discontinued the most part-time master’s programs, at 16: chemistry, life science, earth science, physics, fine arts, music, special education, health promotion and health education, educational psychology and counseling, education, design, Chinese as a second language, library and information sciences, mechatronics engineering, history, physical education
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) yesterday appealed to the authorities to release former Taipei mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) from pretrial detention amid conflicting reports about his health. The TPP at a news conference on Thursday said that Ko should be released to a hospital for treatment, adding that he has blood in his urine and had spells of pain and nausea followed by vomiting over the past three months. Hsieh Yen-yau (謝炎堯), a retired professor of internal medicine and Ko’s former teacher, said that Ko’s symptoms aligned with gallstones, kidney inflammation and potentially dangerous heart conditions. Ko, charged with
RSS