Department of Information and Tourism, Taipei City Government

Mayor Hau Lung-bin presided over the award ceremony honoring outstanding borough chiefs on June 29. During his speech, he praised the borough chiefs for carrying out city policies at the local level, helping the city develop and prosper.
As he handed out the award to the recipients, the mayor expressed his gratitude to them for helping the city government learn more about what local communities require. He would like to say ‘thank you’ to the outstanding borough chiefs on behalf of Taipei’s residents.
Hau noted that during past meetings with district and borough leaders, he has collected over 1,600 questions related with city administrations. The city government solved nearly 70 percent of the concerns, most of which have to do with environment and road maintenance issues. On the average, each borough reported about one-to-two problems – most of these were resolved with the assistance of local chiefs.
He also took the opportunity to ask for the borough chiefs’ support for two major policies – the old apartment renovation project and the childbirth subsidy program.
Beginning in 2011, couples giving birth to a baby will receive a cash incentive of NT$20,000; the city government will also issue NT$2,500 in monthly subsidies to families with kids between 0 and 5 years of age. He also mentioned that borough chiefs of suitable age having newborns will receive an extra gift from city hall in addition to the aforementioned benefits.
On the topic of urban renovation, the mayor stressed that giving old apartment buildings a facelift is one of the most important objective of city hall. He noted that old edifices over 2,000 meter-square are eligible for the renewal projects and related incentives such as “one-ping-for-one-ping” after renovations. He hopes that the borough chiefs will help the city government to spread the news in their neighborhood.