Department of Information and Tourism, Taipei City Government

To let more people learn about the upcoming 2010 Taipei International Flora Expo, Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin led a promotion group to visit Changhua County on March 20. The members of the delegation joined up with County Magistrate Cho Po-yuan at the Tien-Wei Highway Flower Garden.
Changhua County is one of the major flower-producing counties in Taiwan. To express Taipei’s gratitude to the local flower growers for their support, Hau brought the mascots of the Flora Expo – the six flower faeries – and a tailor-made Flora Expo promotion vehicle to the county.
During his address, Hau praised Magistrate Cho for actively cooperating with Taipei City. In fact, the magistrate visited Taipei City Government several times throughout the process, and Changhua County Government is the first municipal government in Taiwan to reach an agreement on Flora Expo Municipality-to-Municipality exchange with Taipei. He stressed that one of the reasons for choosing Changhua as the first stop of the promotion group is to repay the magistrate’s determination and support.
During a meeting with local flower farmers and sales representatives, Hau reported that the Flora Expo will require approximately 30 million seedlings. The City has already purchased NT$160 million-worth of merchandise from growers in Chuanghua and expects to spend another NT$400 million in the future. In other words, Chuanghua County will claim approximately 40 percent out of the NT$1.35 billion budget for the expo.
In addition, to help farmers in Changhua obtain international exposure, the City has established booths inside the expo venues for display or sale of agricultural products from the municipality.