Taipei mayoral candidate Puma Shen has put forward a set of youth policies that would cost nearly NT$3 billion a year — a boon for young people, though where the money would come from has yet to be spelled out.

• The three main programmes are a city youth fund, a support scheme for young people's use of AI, and a plan to help young people fulfil their dreams of going abroad.
• The core design is to top up savings for young people aged 18 to 22, so that combined with their own contributions they would receive NT$500,000 at age 22 as a start-in-life fund.
• The Taipei City Youth Affairs Department has an annual budget of less than NT$500 million, and this sum is more than twice the combined youth affairs budgets of all six special municipalities, prompting questions about whether it would squeeze out other municipal spending.
• Shen responded that Taipei has an annual budget of NT$250 billion, and that devoting 1% of it to investing in young people is not excessive; if the city government is unwilling to do it, then it should be replaced.
• He also argued that care after childbirth matters just as much, singling out safety on the way to school, school lunches, child abuse and bullying as areas requiring supporting measures.

Outlook: Funding sources and the crowding-out effect will be key points of contention as the campaign continues.