Changhua County has announced a campaign to become Taiwan''s seventh special municipality. With a population of more than 1.25 million, Changhua County meets the criterion for the upgrade, which would come with an upgrade in funding from the central government. On Wednesday, local councilors and Changhua''s legislators gathered in Taipei to promote the bid, which will have to be approved by the Executive Yuan.
Pan-blue and pan-green lawmakers form a neat rank, joined by local councilors who made the trip from Changhua to Taipei. They’re all here at the Legislative Yuan, to get behind the campaign to make Changhua the seventh special municipality.
Wong Chin-chu
Former Changhua County commissioner
Changhua County actually has the largest population outside of the six special municipalities. From a cultural perspective, it fits the criteria for becoming a special municipality. As someone who has served as Changhua County commissioner, I know that Changhua is highly qualified to become a special municipality.
Hsieh Yi-fong
KMT lawmaker
Changhua has a very distinct historical and cultural background. The county was founded some 300 years ago, and its traditional industries are extremely important to Central Taiwan. It’s my hope that the Executive Yuan will not overlook Changhua County when assessing upgrades to administrative districts, because we would qualify without any legal amendments and without wasted costs.
With its 1.28 million people, Changhua already meets the population criterion for an upgrade, which is 1.25 million. Of all the cities and counties, Changhua is the only one that qualifies based on current laws.
With buzz building over administrative upgrades, many local officials are looking to join the bandwagon. On Tuesday, Legislator Chen Ming-wen urged his constituency of Chiayi to seek an upgrade of its own.
Chen Ming-wen
DPP lawmaker
What we advocate for is a comprehensive review. There should be national-level planning for the administrative districts – we might even go so far as to say, all districts should be made the same. There shouldn’t be any second-tier local governments or third-tier local governments. With regard to the petition for upgrading Hsinchu, both city and county are set to be assessed at the same time. We should ensure that our petition is assessed at the same time as theirs.
Huang Hsiu-fang
DPP lawmaker
Whether it’s merging and upgrading Hsinchu City and Hsinchu County, or merging and upgrading Yunlin, Chiayi City, and Chiayi County, or upgrading Keelung – these are all proposals that can be discussed. Actually the most qualified of the bunch is Changhua, because it can be upgraded directly, without legal amendments.
Changhua officials called for an upgrade, saying that the Executive Yuan had no grounds for refusing a restructuring. Over in Changhua, local councilors have launched a petition for the upgrade in 26 villages and townships. They’ve called on the county government to draw up a restructuring plan to submit to the Executive Yuan.