Taipei City Government

On July 24, Mayor Ko Wen-je attended the award ceremony honoring the top designs for Taipei Smart Ecological Community blueprints. He noted that Taipei’s vision is to establish a livable and sustainable city, characterized by convenient lifestyle, energy conservation, and environment-friendliness.
 
During his address, Ko recalled that many people proposed great plans in the early stages of developing the vision, but he decided upon a clear objective that involves creating a place where people can live and work without worries.
 
To achieve this goal, it is necessary to combine the strengths of both public and private sectors. From last year’s pool of submission, the city implemented 40 projects, including smart street light, permeable pavement, disaster prevention well, rainwater recycling, and eco ducts.
 
The mayor pointed out that city hall expects to implement 55 smart eco projects this year based on the concept of “plan your own community.” A total of 126 submissions were received for this year’s competition. When factoring in the works received after the deadline, actual numbers showed a growth of 3 times compared to 2017.
 
The growing public interest for the event indicates the gradual realization of concepts such as open government, public participation, and policy transparency. Another important point is that the city government makes an open call to the public for suggestions on community planning. The submissions will be reviewed by not only the award committees, but also city hall. Therefore, successful designs are usually practical and doable.
 
In conclusion, the mayor invites everyone to look at the works submitted this year, and promised to make adjustments to allow the competition to continue into the future.