Taipei City Government

Mayor Ko Wen-je presented a report on the progress of Taipei Dome Complex Construction Project during a city council session in the morning of May 23.

On the issue of Taipei Dome, Ko stressed that the stance of city government is to comply with the principles of safety and fairness. He called upon Farglory to comply with regulations and apply for construction license building design changes for structures that differ from the original submitted plans.

He hopes that citizens and the city council will support the city government’s determination on upholding public safety standards.

According to Ko, the plans for Taipei Dome changed from the 3-story-building in the original plans to today’s 5-story structure. The increase of both floor and commercial areas comes at the cost of reducing areas reserved for emergency evacuation during possible disasters. He also cited the unauthorized changes to the partition of basement parking lots under each building and reduction of fire escapes, leading to safety concerns.

He noted that the Control Yuan has also deemed 39 items in contract of the Taipei Dome Construction project between the city government and Farglory to be improper. Furthermore, Taiwan Architecture and Building Center has still yet to approve the blueprints submitted by Farglory for fire safety evaluation.

The mayor added that if the issue of Taipei Dome is not solved now, it will become even more complicated in the future. Currently a special task force dealing with this issue has been established under the Mayor’s Office, comprising members from various agencies. If improvements are not implemented within a deadline, the city government will proceed with cancelation of the construction contract.

The mayor also took the opportunity to apology to citizens. He understands how the public is becoming more and more impatient with the halted construction – and even damaging his public image. However, he believes that taking a firm position is necessary, because the problem will remain if not solved.