Leaders from four central
Taiwan cities and counties
attended this year's official
forum.

President Ma Ying-jeou

Mayor Jason Hu at the city-
county merging forum.

Mayor Hu says that that four
central Taiwan cities and
counties working together can
create new boundaries for
Taiwan. Standing to his left is
Taichung County Magistrate
Huang Jhong-sheng. To his
right is Changhua County
Deputy Magistrate Chang Rui-
bing.

Regional cooperation becomes a new trend: Discussion Topics at the Taichung City Forum

Taiwan cities, counties and regions merge to enjoy shared equal opportunities for development

Words and photos by Taichung City Government
Translated by Ann Lee

The Local Government Act Amendment, passed on April 3, was a focus at the 2009 Taiwan Cities, Counties and Regional Cooperation Review & Future Aspects Forum, held by Taichung City Government and the Executive Yuan's Council for Economic Planning and Development on April 2. Taichung City Mayor Jason Hu attended this forum and also invited Taipei City Mayor Hau Lung-bin, Taipei County Commissioner Chou Hsi-wei, Taichung County Magistrate Huang Jhong-sheng, Kaohsiung County Magistrate Yeh Nan-ming, and Kaohsiung City Deputy Secretary-General Chen Kai-ling, as well as many other professors working at tertiary educational institutions. President Ma Ying-jeou also attended this forum and gave a speech.

Cities and counties cooperate and coordinate resources for greater results
During Mayor Hu's forum speech, he noted, "Cities, counties and regions working together has now become a trend. I am happy to see that Taichung city and county will 'possibly' merge into one municipality, and that they will be holding a conference discussing this issue. However, whether or not they can merge into one probably depends on President Ma." This statement made the crowd laugh, but President Ma also gave a positive response. "Taichung county and city have been making aggressive efforts to merge into one municipality, so if we take out the word 'possibly', as Mayor Hu said, that would be even better!" said the president.

During his opening speech, Hu also pointed out that the central Taiwan regions, including Taichung city and county, Nantou County and Changhua County, have already worked together to build a strong foundation. This type of merger between cities and counties has become a trend and he hopes that coordinating and pooling the resources of these regions will improve Taiwan's development on all levels in the future.

President Ma: Merging regions is a trend
In his own speech, President Ma followed the mayor's comments by noting that the subject of merging regions was not only important, but also a necessary cultural pattern. "Mayor Hu thinks that the merging of Taichung city and county depends on my sole decision, but in reality I think it depends on everybody," said Ma. "Apart from the objective conditions for the city and county merger, we also have to look into those subjective aspirations. Take Taichung city and county, for example. Subjectively, the city council has already passed the act and is all ready to merge, showing aggressive aspirations. At the same time, the objective conditions are also there, so that's why I responded to Mayor Hu that way, telling him that it would be even better to take out the word 'possibly' in regards to this issue."

President Ma, whose remarks were applauded by the audience, stated that under the amended law, all other local city and county governments were also eligible to propose a status upgrade, noting the example of cooperation between Taipei city and county, which have enjoyed a good experience working together. Such was the case when he was elected Taipei City Mayor. Despite early difficulties, when Taipei city and county only cooperated to prosecute drunk drivers, they now work together to improve waste management processing, water resource sharing, and public transportation. May said he believed that the building of such relationships could be institutionalized in the future, certainly benefitting Taiwan's overall development. The "three metropolitan areas and 15 counties" merger plan is the government's current implementation focus.

Ma also pointed out that, while there was nothing wrong with a smaller, beautiful city, the creation of large metropolises was necessary. Cities like Seoul and Shanghai have elevated their competitiveness and it would be worrying if Taiwan couldn't merge to follow suit. This is a message that the president hoped northern, central and southern Taiwan forum representatives could take back to their governments.

Mayor Hu: Work together to promote Greater Taichung
At this year's forum, Mayor Hu made the point that Taichung city was not the sole beneficiary of the regional merger, as this was shared by central Taiwan's four cities and counties, from the development of the Taichung Science Park to cooperation between various industries. The way that central Taiwan has chosen to jointly promote its cities has raised its shared competitiveness versus other cities and counties around Taiwan. Hu also said that, according to hotel industry statistics, since the four cities and counties began joint promotion efforts the number of hotel guest stays had grown by about 3,000 rooms per month, with a 30-50,000 growth in the number of tourists. This was a good example of successful, effective merging.

Taichung County Magistrate Huang also expressed agreement with Mayor Hu's statement. He said the relationship between Taichung city and county was like an egg yolk and white, which were impossible to separate. In order for Taiwan to develop properly, city/county mergers were necessary for a global competitive edge. Nantou County Deputy Magistrate Chen Zhi-ching and Changhua County Deputy Magistrate Chang Rui-bing also both expressed views on mergers, noting that when Taichung city and county were merged and upgraded, a common consenus between all related parties needed to be reached regarding issues of synchronizing costs and regional development needs.