Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je Attends Corporate Visit and Digital Industry Upgrade 11 Forum

On the 20th, Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je attended the Corporate Visit and Digital Industry Upgrade Forum, where he held a dialogue with guests from various industries and local government representatives on issues related to the development of innovative technology industries. Mayor Ko Wen-je, under the title "Corporate Culture: Doctor to Mayor," described his journey from graduating from medical school and practicing medicine to save lives, to changing course and becoming mayor of Taipei. When exchanging views with people from industry, government, and academia, he specifically talked about how Taipei stimulates industrial development, citing the extension of the Taipei 101 New Year's Eve event to October-December, and how the Taipei Lantern Festival revitalized business in Ximending. This approach uses large-scale, diverse, high-popularity events to drive the revitalization of commercial districts, strengthen Taipei's constitution, and allow industries to develop step by step.

During his speech, Mayor Ko Wen-je first used the hospital culture of an acute and critical care surgeon as an introduction, bringing out the many new city government cultures he is currently promoting at Taipei City Hall, including disciplined financial management, open and transparent public participation, the promotion of smart administration through comprehensive small-scale e-government, and policies such as banning disposable tableware for the long-term future of the city and its citizens.

During the exchange session after the speech, some attending members of the public were curious about Mayor Ko Wen-je as Taipei mayor and hoped he would share more of his experience in city governance and industrial development. Mayor Ko Wen-je said he believed that at this stage the safest way to boost Taiwan's economy is to drive the economy through a large volume of small-sum spending. Currently, all events in Taipei with more than 5,000 people are placed under full control, and each event is required to be internationalized, localized, and industrialized. Therefore, when the city government holds events now, it places considerable emphasis on the benefits of small-sum consumption and industrialization that the events can bring, such as requiring integration with commercial districts around the event venue and adding booths at the event site.

Mayor Ko Wen-je gave an example: the Taipei Lantern Festival was originally held inside the Expo Park, but later it was held in Ximending. The most obvious case was a chicken cutlet shop whose monthly rent went from 200,000 yuan to 500,000 yuan after the Taipei Lantern Festival was held. He asked the owner why he still did business when the monthly rent was 500,000 yuan. The owner told him that his monthly revenue was 5 million yuan. So one Taipei Lantern Festival pulled up the entire commercial district's business, and it still had not fallen after half a year. This gave him a great shock, and it is also why the city government places all Taipei events with more than 5,000 people under control. These events all ask the organizers, "Do you have any industrial activities?" In fact, Taiwan's current economic situation is not very good. When the body is not well, one should slowly take care of it and slowly provide nourishment, rather than immediately operating, because that would be very dangerous. So this is his economic strategy.