Department of Information and Tourism, Taipei City Government

Taipei City Mayor Ko Wen-je attended the opening ceremony of the Social Welfare Services Building in Zhongzheng District on the morning of September 6, where he toured the facility with the media and guests in order to understand the status of services offered throughout various locations in the building. Before the tour commenced, Mayor Ko presented a brief speech, stating that there are currently 9 organizations stationed in the new Social Welfare Services Building, offering services encompassing child daycare, women’s welfare, child and juvenile adoption, daycare for disabled persons and vulnerable family welfare.

Ko pointed out that the city government has created the Taipei City Social Welfare Map by drawing inspiration from Google Maps, marking social service locations such as daycare centers and kindergartens. In doing so, the convenient information is not only helpful for citizens, but also serves as a statistical foundation for the city government when expanding new social service locations across the 12 administrative districts in the city. Mayor Ko instructed Department of Social Welfare (DSW) Commissioner Chen Shiue-hui to continue updating the online information of the Taipei City Social Welfare Map.

Apart from the regionalization of social welfare, police and firefighting organizations and schools, Mayor Ko commented that the establishment of government agencies in the future must strive towards the goal of centralized offices in an effort to increase the efficiency of city government.

Speaking of Taipei City’s daycare and kindergarten policy, Mayor Ko suggested that Taipei City Government has a rather innovative idea, that is, to extend the age of children eligible for daycare centers to 3, meaning that the transition between daycare and kindergarten is set between 2-3 years old, and parents will be able to determine when their children will attend kindergarten based on the actual development of their children.

Lastly, the mayor expressed his gratitude to former DSW Commissioner Hsu Li-min for attending the opening ceremony of the Social Welfare Services Building today. He used the analogy of a relay race to explain that in order to achieve greatness; concerted efforts from different parties are required. Furthermore, he also thanked the guests for participating in the event and the various organizations for moving their offices into the Social Welfare Services Building in Zhongzheng District. Mayor Ko emphasized the importance of public-private partnership since it is almost impossible to advance any social agenda by relying on the sole effort of the government.