Mayors and city councilors of the nation’s five special municipalities were sworn in Dec. 25, in what Interior Minister Jiang Yi-huah said was the start of a new era of self-governance.
Whereas Taiwan used to have only two special municipalities, from now on it will have five, Jiang said, adding that altogether roughly 60 percent of the population lives in these special municipalities.
“These municipalities will help make our nation more competitive,” Jiang said. “They will integrate regional economic and public resources, help their surrounding cities and counties develop, and improve our overall quality of life.”
The five special municipalities are Taipei City, Xinbei City, Taichung City, Tainan City and Kaohsiung City.
Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin vowed during his inauguration that he would do his best to invigorate public services and urban construction and attract more youth to the capital.
Eric Li-luan Chu, the first mayor of Xinbei, said he would work to improve his city’s mass rapid transit system and strengthen its cooperation with its neighbor Taipei.
As the first mayor of Taichung, which was formed from the merger of Taichung City and Taichung County, Jason Hu promised he would undertake major projects such as building economic zones in central Taiwan.
In the south, William Lai, the first mayor of Tainan, said he would immediately engage in industrial development and water-control projects.
Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu said she would enlarge free trade zones and improve her city’s transportation network during her second term.
Separately, council members of the five special municipalities elected their speakers and deputy speakers Dec. 25.
In Taipei and Kaohsiung, the speaker positions went to the ruling Kuomintang, while the deputy speaker positions went to the opposition Democratic Progressive Party.
The Taichung City Council elected an independent friendly with the KMT as its speaker and a KMT council member as its deputy speaker.
The KMT won both speaker and deputy speaker positions in Xinbei, while the DPP captured speaker and deputy speaker positions in Tainan. (HZW)
Write to Elaine Hou at elainehou@mail.gio.gov.tw