Taipei and New Taipei City Collaborate to Promise a Magnificent Future
The 9th deputy mayor meeting of the Taipei-New Taipei Collaboration and Exchange Platform (hereinafter referred to as “the Meeting”) was held in the Taipei City Hall today (December 2, 2019). Presided over by Taipei deputy mayor Shan-shan Huang and New Taipei deputy mayor Chwen-jing Chen, the Meeting reviewed the progress and results of the collaborative projects in the past few months.
The Taipei-New Taipei Collaboration and Exchange Platform (hereinafter referred to as “the Platform”) has successfully pushed for 141 projects in total since its kickoff in 2015. 110 projects have been completed and 31 are still in progress. All the projects were reviewed at the Meeting to ensure the two municipalities continue to work together for policy implementation.
Mayor Ko and Mayor Hou care lot about the collaboration. They both showed up at the meeting to encourage participating city staff to strive for the improvement of citizen welfare. They hope the Platform will cook up more collaborative welfare-enhancing projects.
Deputy Mayor Huang remarked that Taipei and New Taipei City had been proactive about the collaboration, proposing and realizing many projects to meet citizens’ needs in terms of food, housing, transportation, etc. For citizens’ convenience, more projects were initiated this year (2019) to simplify public service process. For instance, starting on May 1, the trash bags certified by both city governments can be used in either city. In addition, New Taipei City Government has changed the sizes and prices of the dual-purpose trash bags since November 1 to be identical to Taipei City’s. The unification significantly improve convenience and environmental protection. Public bus service is another example. Effective July 1, passengers have to swipe cards when getting on and off buses, which saves their confusion about when to swipe cards. The two city governments will continue the collaboration on issues concerning citizens’ life, such as urban development, education, culture, social welfare, etc.
In regard to the first section of Taipei MRT circular line, all problems will be corrected and ready for inspection as soon as possible and no later than December 10 this year. Citizens of both cities will be able to enjoy the convenient transportation services with guaranteed safety.
Responding to the arriving 5G era, cross-field information integration has become an important collaboration topic. The information technology departments of both governments will conduct a review and propose appropriate collaborative projects to provide more and better information related services.
Some major constructions the public care about have also been started, including the reconstruction of Zhongzheng Bridge (May 6), the water pipe construction of Feitsui Reservoir kicked off (July), etc. Taipei City Government will continue to work together with New Taipei City Government, paying substantial attention to citizens’ needs to develop more collaborative projects. The two municipalities are committed to deepen exchanges to promise Taipei and New Taipei citizens a convenient living and a thriving future.