Mayor’s Remarks
1. Concerted efforts for the best memories of Tainan
(1) This is the first municipal administrative meeting of the new administration after the succession of various bureau and department heads. Each of these new members, including Secretary-General Wu, Deputy Secretary-General Lee, and Director-General Lin of the Environmental Protection Bureau, has great experience and expertise in their respective fields and masters the art of municipal administration. With all of your support, I believe that they will shortly get familiar with their new responsibilities, and continue city management seamlessly.
(2) Although Mayor Lai has been promoted to be the premier, his concerns about Tainan never cease. Last weekend, he returned to Tainan to attend the Forward-Looking Forum. In addition, regardless of the mayoral change, the trust of citizens and their expectations to the city government never cease either. Therefore, I plead with all colleagues to stay alert and firmly on top of all affairs and projects under vigorous progress. Premier Lai has earned high recognition from Tainan citizens and all Taiwan citizens for his experience in Tainan governance. We believe that the same team with the same members will indubitably keep the “Tainan Experience” going.
(3) The 6th session of the 2nd term of the Tainan City Council will officially start on the 22nd. Apart from the public examination of the administration’s sturdiness, city councilors will question and discuss the budget and related bills of individual bureaus and departments. I hope that the bureau and department heads can enable the city councilors to understand our administrative policies and practices based on the spirit of proactive understanding, honest communication, and quick settlement. By doing so, we aim to minimize potential misunderstandings and ensure that budgets get approved.
2. Travel safety and quality activities for tours in Tainan in Fall season
(1) Autumn has gradually set in, and yetthe weather is still hot and humid weather. Two years ago, the dengue fever epidemic peaked in late September. I am grateful to the Public Health Bureau and all other bureaus, departments and district offices for their collaboration in environmental maintenance, so that only a few dengue fever cases were reported this year. By week 36 (September 3-9), no native case was reported, and there have been only 13 imported cases. The Public Health Bureau and the Environmental Protection Bureau have immediately taken preventive and disinfecting measures for those imported cases. As typhoons, torrential rain, or afternoon (convectional) rainfall still occur and favor mosquito breeding, we should stay vigilant on dengue fever prevention.
(2) As the hot weather will gradually leave in Autumn, Tainan will become an ideal place for strolls and tours. Activities including the 2017 Taiwan Design Expo and the Tainan Literature Festival held at the same time just reported by the Cultural Affairs Bureau, and the forthcoming 2017 Street Art Competival, Yuguang Island Environmental Art Festival, and Guanziling Hot Spring Food Festival are very suitable for family trips of both Tainan and Taiwan citizens. I and the Tainan City Government sincerely invite all Taiwan citizens to visit Tainan to explore these unique cultural events.
(3) Mayor Lai used to say at the municipal administrative meeting, “Every bureau or department head should aim to be a cultural affairs head.” I also hope that every bureau and department can keep cultural thinking in mind while giving active support to related activities, avoid supporting activities in crude ways or even going against the core value of holding the events. I believe that holding the events in a delicate and considerate way will better demonstrate the quality of our cultural capital.
3. A 3% salary raise for military, public and education personnel
The Executive Yuan has recently approved a 3% salary raise for military, public and education personnel. The Tainan City Government will, in addition to giving this 3% raise to military, public and education personnel, technical workers, janitors, and drivers in Tainan, extend the policy also to contract employees whose salary is paid according to the salary points. For temporary workers, the city government will also give them salary raise at no less than 3%. However, due to the minimum wage adjustment, if the wage of temporary workers is below NT$22,000 after the 3% raise, their wage will be adjusted as per the minimum wage, with a rate of about 4.72%, which is higher than the 3% raise for military, public and education personnel. Therefore, over 30,000 colleagues of all government agencies and schools in Tainan City, including preschool teachers and caregivers and parking fee collectors, will receive a raise.
Reports
1. Report on “Execution Outcomes of the 2017 ‘Summer Protection for Adolescents—Youth Operation’” by Executive Officer Ming-jhen Chen (please refer to written sources for details)
Resolution: Approved for reference filing
Mayor's comments:
(1) Adolescents are the foundation of the next generation in society and the source of national competitiveness. It is thus the responsibility of bureaus and departments to provide a good-quality and safe environment for adolescent growth. I’m grateful to Executive Officer Ming-jhen Chen for her excellent report and Deputy Mayor Chang for his dedicated oversight. To create a quality and safe leisure environment for adolescents, the Tainan City Police Department and all bureaus and departments never spared reinforcing preparations, audits and law enforcement day in and day out, and organized related activities during the Youth Operation. By doing so, they hoped to provide quality and safe leisure venues for adolescents during the summer break. I appreciate your hard work. All bureaus and departments also strengthened related actions to proactively support the operation with innovative methods. You have earned my praise.
(2) From the report, we can see that “zero accidents” have happened this year in water safety, off-campus incidents, and occupational accidents. Such a high-standard performance is invaluable. While the performance of many items in Tainan is many times better than the goals set by the central government, and the performance of some items is even more than a dozen times better, I am afraid that the goals set by the central government can no longer reflect the real performance in Tainan. Therefore, developing indicators with equal emphasis on quality and quantity of this project will be the goal of the execution unit next year.
(3) 2,298 activities were organized this year with over 570,000 participants. These activities covered the following eight categories: entertainment, sports, events, leisure, arts and culture, training, charity, and others. Apart from earning public praise, these activities provided adolescents with opportunities to go outdoors, extend interpersonal relationships and broaden their horizons for balanced physical and psychological development. Although Youth Operation has ended, balanced physical and psychological development of adolescents is the eternal assets of the country and this city. Therefore I hope that all bureaus and departments should not spare related work after the end of the project. Instead, I hope they would continue to implement the operation as a routine. After the end of the project, the organizing bureaus and departments should report for rewards.
(4) As drugs bring tremendous damage to adolescents, I urge the Tainan City Police Department, Public Health Bureau, Bureau of Education, and Bureau of Social Affairs to maintain horizontal connections to assist schools on stopping drugs from entering the campus and help addicted students quit drugs at the national security level. By doing so, we hope that adolescents can enjoy healthy and balanced growth in a quality, safe, healthy, and happy environment.
2. Report on the “2017 Taiwan Design Expo” by the Cultural Affairs Bureau (please refer to written sources for details)
Resolution: Approved for reference filing
Mayor's comments:
(1) To promote the upgrade of cultural and creative industry in Tainan, Tainan City strived for organizing the “2017 Taiwan Design Expo” after organizing the event for three consecutive times during 2006-2008. The theme “Design for Happiness in Tainan” and the idea “City as Exhibition Venue” were the most striking feature of the expo this year. By connecting the cultural and creative theme pavilions with great studios, design travel, street art, and tourism factories, we enable visitors to walk in the most charming lanes and allies and discover the happiness design energy in Tainan.
(2) Unlike previous events, we made lots of breakthroughs this year. Apart from organizing the event in collaboration with National Cheng Kung University and the Ministry of Economic Affairs, we revolutionized the single pavilion model by expanding the event to eight pavilions. We also connected with 100 great design studios to plan 5 design travel routes, 18 street installation artworks, and over 120 fringe activities. By closely combining the energy of the private sector and educational institutions, we enabled Tainan’s blossoming design power to bloom at the present design expo. I’m grateful to Director-General Yeh for his report and the devotion and effort of the Cultural Affairs Bureau.
(3) The 2017 Taiwan Design Expo recruited over 1,500 entries and nearly 800 entrants. This year’s event has the most pavilions, the most comprehensive themes, the most entries, and the most entrants in its history. In additional to the closest cooperation among the industry, the government and the academia, the engagement of all parts of the society is also the most enthusiastic in history. All these have fully demonstrated the creativity and execution power of the Cultural Affairs Bureau and the exhibition planners, and the event is highly looked forward to. I would like to urge all bureaus and departments to give their full support to ensure the smooth progression of this event that demonstrates the cohesion of city culture and enhances the cultural and creative industries of Tainan.
(4) The 2017 Taiwan Design Expo will commence on September 30. Currently, the Cultural Affairs Bureau is implementing a campaign on the internet to progressively develop media topics and feedback. I would like to remind the Cultural Affairs Bureau and all bureaus and departments to pay attention to the quality of public services during the event in order to provide visitors with good experience of ourcity, and to endeavor to demonstrate the unique city charm of Tainan. The Cultural Affairs Bureau shall also consider the opinions just expressed by the two deputy mayors, Deputy Secretary-General Liu, and bureau and department heads.
3. Report on the “2017 International Marketing Outcomes” by the Tourism Bureau (please refer to written sources for details)
Resolution: Approved for reference filing
Mayor's comments:
(1) In recent years, the number of visitors has exceeded 20 million persons and the number of visitors staying has exceeded 3 million persons every year. Under the leadership of Director-General Wang, the Tourism Bureau has achieved an undeniably impressive performance in promoting various tourism marketing campaigns at home and aboard.
(2) Due to the special connections between Tainan and Japan, the Tourism Bureau has specifically presented the friendliness and depth of Tainan City with innovative and quality methods. These untraditional publicity models have successfully attracted the high attention for Tainan among Japanese visitors. As a result, many Japanese visitors repeat visiting Tainan, and we must not overlook the topics and diffusion effect created. These methods will also become models for international tourism marketing of other cities.
(3) In support of the New Southbound Policy of the central government, there is still space for attracting Southeast Asian visitors. Recently, the Tourism Bureau has established Tainan’s marketing strategy beginning with the market of Chinese-speaking visitors and tailored tours. We believe that results will emerge from these efforts.
(4) Both the central government and local governments are facing new challenges and issues in tourism development. In particular, special emphasis should be put on issues including expanding international visitor sources, marketing strategy differentiation for individual regions and countries, and avoiding over-centralization of specific markets. The Tourism Bureau must continue its efforts in participating in existing international travel fairs and taking innovative measures like organizing its own fairs and activities. Related bureaus and departments, such as the Cultural Affairs Bureau and the Department of Information and International Relations, should assist the Tourism Bureau in promoting tourism in order to create a thriving and sustainable environment for tourism and travel in Tainan. The Tourism Bureau should start planning based on the recommendations just made by Deputy Mayor Chang and Deputy Secretary-General Liu, particularly the part of cultivating the South Korean tourism market.