Taipei City Government

Mayor Ko Wen-je attended the 2020 Taipei Community Building Season – The Ordinary Folk's Community of Happiness event at city hall on November 9.
 
The exhibition spotlights city agencies’ accomplishment in areas such as “nurturing humanistic qualities,” “community power cultivation,” “community collaboration,” “landscape enhancement,” “Medical care and welfare,” “community safety,” “business and industry development,” and “environment and ecology.”
 
During his address, the mayor pointed out that many problems confronting modern society are not issues which can be dealt with by a single agency. In the past, one of the weakness of the government is a lack of division of labor and collaboration. Fortunately, through the effort of Taipei’s 3 deputy mayors in recent years, the city government is able to overcome such hurdles. In the case of community building, the Department of Urban Development (UDD) was able to utilize public space as a foundation to realize cross-agency collaboration and transform Taipei by initiating efforts in the public sector and later expanding into the private sector.
 
The mayor noted that while Taipei lacks farming towns and fishing villages, it boasts a number of commercial districts and farming communities with strong characteristics such as Zhuzihu. UDD sets up the work parameters based on actual needs and relies on inter-agency coordination to implement such largescale community building projects. One example is the Taipei 5+3 Project, which extends from Beitou to Dadaocheng to NTU to Wanhua. It will also include the future Taipei Performing Arts Center, Taipei Music Center, and Taipei Dome Complex.
 
Ko remarked that investing billions to construct a single building has little impact upon community building. However, the results can be very different if an entire community is factored into the project. That is why the Taipei Music Center must be integrated into the East District Gateway Project as a way to connecting with local borough chiefs and communities. The same holds true for Taipei Performing Arts Center and Taipei Dome Complex, which also require interactions with local communities, as community building involves cross-agency effort and issue-focused integration. That is why he invites citizens to provide more suggestions and take part in the participatory budget process.