Taipei City Government

On March 4, Mayor Ko Wen-je led a city delegation on a visit to Tainan City Government and met with his counterpart William Lai.
During his address, the mayor praised Lai for integrating the historical and cultural heritage of Tainan City with tourism, developing tours with local characteristics under his administration. He noted that the purpose of the visit is to exchange experience with Tainan City Government on issues ranging from city tourism, science park development, human-centered traffic policy, and the 2017 Summer Universiade.
Ko pointed out that Taiwan is very small, and there are many opportunities for collaboration. He hopes that today’s visit will offer the opportunity for city officials of the two municipalities to get to know each other.
Speaking about his two-year-long experience as Taipei’s mayor, Ko noted that he has invested much effort in changing the political culture; in other words, “doing the right things and avoid doing the wrong things.” He mentioned many times during the City Executive Meetings that the political objective spans the following: civil servants serve the people, as well as making the government trustworthy, the judicial system fair, where law is for people to follow, prisons a place to lock up the guilty ones, and cops responsible for arresting those who commit crimes.
Lai expressed his gratitude to the members of the visiting delegation. He recalled that Taipei’s emergency rescue personnel and volunteers contributed to the overall rescue effort during the major earthquake last year, and large amounts of donations from the residents of Taipei helped the recovery efforts as well.
He also noted that the event set three records – the largest delegation from Taipei’s administration to conduct exchange with Tainan City, the exchange between the political and economic capital with the cultural capital, and the meeting of two mayors who were both doctors.