Mayor’s remarks:
I. “Groper Teacher Prevention for Children and Youth Protection” Action Plan
1. In order to establish a flawless tutorial school management mechanism, the Tainan City Government has formed an audit task force with members of the Education Bureau (EB), Bureau of Social Affairs (BSA), and Tainan City Police Department (TNPD) to activate the “Groper Teacher Prevention for Children and Youth Protection” action plan on May 16. With an establishment of 222 members, the task force conducted a two-week blanket audit on 1,534 short-term tutorial schools in the city and compared the data of 6,621 tutorial staff in the city with the data in the “Unfit Teaching Staff Information Database” of the Ministry of Education (MOE). The results found no unfit teaching staff. Related results have been filed in the “Municipal and County Short-term Tutorial School Information Management System”.
2. After scrutinizing the criminal record of 5,816 staff and teachers, the TNPD found that 805 staff did not provide such records and have requested them to submit their criminal records by June 9. The TNPD has noted that those who fail to do so will be sanctioned in accordance with the “Tainan City Regulations Governing the Establishment and Management of Short-term Tutorial School”, including cessation of student recruitment and cancellation of the teaching license in the most serious cases. The BSA has implemented the “Awareness Education on the Prevention of Sexual Harassments and Sexual Assaults” and has set up a dedicated window with 24-hour support, emergency reporting, and consultation services.
3. In the future, in addition to including information of teachers as a key audit item of the routine public safety joint audit, the city government will continuously reinforce the awareness education of gender equality. Furthermore, the city government has started amending the “Tainan City Regulations Governing the Establishment and Management of Short-term Tutorial School” in line with MOE’s amendment of the “Supplementary Education Act” by adding requirements including: submission of criminal records, documents of education attainments, and proof of unfit education personnel clearance for new tutorial staff. The amendment also adds the real-name system to request owners of registered tutorial schools to disclose the real name of both the tutorial schools and tutors in publicity materials and prospectus in order to ease students’ worries and make parents feel safe through different levels of control.
II. Quantity of adult day care centers in Tainan City tops Taiwan
1. The “Sinhua Adult Day Care Center” was officially opened on 3 June 2017. This is the twenty-sixth adult day care center in Tainan City and the thirteenth success of Tainan’s revitalization of public facilities into adult day care centers. This adult day care center also sets out an important foundation for the community overall care model under the Long-Term Care 2.0 policy for Sinhua and neighboring administrative districts.
2. Statistics provided by the Ministry of the Interior (MOI) show that the elderly population outnumbered the youth population for the first time this February. MOI estimates that the elderly population next year will exceed 14% of the total population, turning Taiwan into an aged society. In response to the turn into an aged society, President Tsai Ing-wen has proposed the “Long-Term Care 2.0” policy to promote proper care of senior citizens in every municipality and county. As Tainan City has the second-largest elderly population among all six municipalities, we need to proactively and aggressively implement the Long-Term Care 2.0 policy in order to develop complete community care resources.
3. I appreciate the contributions of many private social welfare organizations whose efforts have established the best foundation for the city to implement the Long-Term Care 2.0 policy. The number of adult day care centers has rapidly increased from five before the municipality promotion to 26, the highest in Taiwan. I am grateful to Deputy Mayor Wu, BSA Director-General Liu, and responsible colleagues for their proactive efforts. Please continue these efforts in the future work in order to provide senior citizens with the best accommodation where they can enjoy a healthy and happy later life in a familiar environment, turning Tainan into a truly happy, livable, aged-friendly city.
III. Appreciation to the city government team for being faithful and utterly dedicated to their work when the strongest plum rain front of this year hit Taiwan
1. At the 296th municipal administrative meeting on May 31, I have reminded bureaus and departments to stay alert and to be prepared for floods. When the plum rain front and southwesterly wind became stronger on June 2, the Central Weather Bureau (CWB) announced this year’s first heavy rain and extremely heavy rain warning in areas that included Tainan. Despite the insignificant rain intensity, I raised the response level of the city’s Yonghua Disaster Response Center to level II-phase I to advance the disaster response, and all district offices followed suit. I also personally hosted the 0601 Extremely Heavy Rain Response Preparation Meeting and listened to the report on the status of preparations by unit heads of the task force. I further requested all unit heads to stay highly alert and keep a constant track of flood control information. As rain intensity reduced, I lowered the response level to level III at 12:30 on June 4. Overall, the response center operated for 76.5 hours.
2. Accompanied by the southwesterly flow, the plum rain front brought extreme rainfall to Taiwan and caused heavy and extremely heavy rain in a short time, bringing damage to many parts of Taiwan. Influenced by the plum rain front and southwesterly wind, the CWB continuously published heavy rain special reports for Tainan. Finally, due to the stationary position of the plum rain front and direction of the southwesterly flow, although there was heavy rain in some parts of Tainan, no serious harm was caused to crops or livestock. I would like to extend my thanks to two deputy mayors, the secretary-general, Director-General Peng of Water Resources Bureau, Director-General Su of the Public Works Bureau, Commissioner Lee of the Fire Bureau, Director Lee of the Environmental Protection Bureau, and the city government’s disaster rescue team for preparing for the worst based on the belief in “plan more for incidents and act cautiously in response” for their flood preparedness and making the most comprehensive preparation based on George Washington’s motto: “To be prepared for war is one of the most effectual means of preserving the peace.” Your commitment to work and faithfulness to duties allowed us to properly handle the heavy and extremely heavy rain brought by this southwesterly flow. Thank you for your efforts.
3. Thanks to the plum rain front, our water shortage was relieved, and the city government has cancelled its phase-one water restrictions. Although the threat of water shortage has been temporarily relieved, the city government reminds citizens to keep saving water in order to prevent this drought from recurring. In addition, water accumulation occurs easily in the environment after rain, becoming the source vector for mosquito growth. All relevant units and Tainan citizens should conduct indoor and outdoor environmental examinations and eliminate vector growth sources based on the “check, pour, brush, and clean” principle. District and village offices should also remind citizens to reinforce vector growth elimination. The Public Health Bureau and Environmental Protection Bureau should reinforce inspections and team up with the “Tainan City Dengue Fever Prevention Center” to demonstrate the prevention methods in order to achieve the function of disease prevention through concerted efforts.
Reports
I. Report on “Achievements and Prospects of Economic Development Promotion” by the Bureau of Economic Development (refer to written sources for details)
Resolution: Approved for reference filing
Mayor’s comments:
1. Thanks to the team led by Director-General Fang and the assistance of related bureaus and departments for enabling the bureau to achieve No. 1 in the country for almost all performance indicators. Important achievements include: (1) A total of 1,813 new investment projects amounting up to NT$895.1 billion, creating job opportunities for 82,992 people between 2011 and April 2017, and leading domestic and foreign enterprises including TSMC, Eminent Luggage, Nisshin Steel, and etc. have invested in Tainan. (2) The successful construction of Sin Ji Industrial Park to become Taiwan’s first zero-effluent industry park, and the construction of the Cigu Industrial Park will be started and completed, while the improvement to ten industrial parks in the budget will be completed one after another. All these have demonstrated Bureau of Economic Development’s execution efficiency, which is worthy of commendation. (3) A low-carbon city is the ultimate goal of the Tainan City Government. With the concerted effort of the Bureau of Economic Development and Environmental Protection Bureau, the city government has approved over 3,000 applications for photovoltaic (PV) generation in just six years, ranking at the top of the country. With over 300 GWh, the capacity of these PV projects is equivalent to the electricity generation capacity of the entire Zengwen Reservoir. In the next couple of years, to achieve the generation capacity of that of another Zengwen Reservoir will not be a problem. Due to the performance in promoting low carbon and green energy, we won the Gold Award in the Low-Carbon Model Towns pillar at the 3rd APEC Energy Smart Communities Initiative Best Practices Awards in 2017. It was an unprecedented achievement. For the promotion of subsequent policies and projects, such as the New Southbound Policy, Siaying Market Reconstruction Project, South District Yencheng Business 8 Development Project, Cigu Technology Industrial Park Budget, Solar City program of Tainan, and the Shalun Green Energy Science City in collaboration with the central government, the Bureau of Economic Development should do their best and complete these projects at the specified quality and schedule with full steam based on their responsibility and authority. I also appreciate Deputy Mayor Wu, Deputy Mayor Chang, secretary-general and deputy secretary-generals for their supervision, and the assistance of related bureaus and departments, including the Public Works Bureau, Environmental Protection Bureau, Bureau of Land Administration, Bureau of Urban Development, Bureau of Transportation, Water Resources Bureau, and Agriculture Bureau. I hope that the Bureau of Economic Development can reinforce their efforts to further the economic development of Tainan and create more job opportunities for local citizens.
II. Report on “Countermeasures for Mango Production and Sales & 2017 Tainan Mango Festival” by the Agriculture Bureau (refer to written sources for details)
Resolution: Approved for reference filing
Mayor’s comments:
1. The year of 2017 is a year of bumper harvests in Tainan, and the sales prices are also good. God bless Tainan! In addition to marketing mangoes through the Tainan Mango Festival, neighboring administrative districts, such as Yujing, Danei, Nanxi, Zhojhen, and Nanhua, have organized increasingly diverse marketing activities in the mango season. Besides boosting mango sales, these activities have benefited tourism, and I am grateful to the Tourism Bureau for its support and assistance. The Taiwan International Orchid Show is also organized for the same goal: helping orchid farmers to expand export sales, branding Tainan, and promoting Tainan’s tourism industry in order to benefit Tainan’s tourism business owners.
2. The effectiveness of pilot work “trade negotiation” has emerged. The business opportunities from procurement valued US$10.22 million, increased by US$520,000 from last year. Products in negotiation include fruits, such as mangoes and pineapples, and processed foods. This will mean a big help to Tainan farmers.
3. To promote the Tainan Mango Festival, I encouraged bureau and department heads and employees to invite friends at home and abroad to visit Tainan and taste Tainan mangoes over social networking sites and asked the Department of Information and International Relations to invite people from friendly cities and sister cities to visit Tainan and join the Tainan Mango Festival and arrange relevant itineraries for them to market Tainan as well.