Huang Shih-chieh slams Chang San-cheng's empty governance record, citing delays to Asia Silicon Valley and the Zhongli Dome
As the race for Taoyuan mayor heats up, Democratic Progressive Party candidate Huang Shih-chieh has trained his fire on the construction progress of incumbent mayor Chang San-cheng, calling it a negative signal for local development.
- The Asia Silicon Valley Innovation and R&D Center had already been contracted out and broken ground under Cheng Wen-tsan; after taking office, Chang cancelled the contract and reopened the tender process, and there has been no progress since.
- The process of re-evaluating the project cost more than NT$10 million extra — meaning the money was spent while the works stayed exactly where they were.
- Tendering for the Zhongli Sports Park dome has been pushed back from June all the way to December, after the election, drawing criticism that the delay was deliberately timed to get past the vote.
- Traffic in Zhongli has been singled out as the biggest source of frustration, with railway undergrounding and sewer works being excavated at the same time, narrowing the road from three lanes to one.
- Huang blamed the problems on poor horizontal coordination between city government agencies, and pledged to restore administrative efficiency if elected.
Outlook: Construction delays and the traffic "dark period" are expected to become the main battleground in the Taoyuan mayoral race, and the timetable for the dome's December tender opening will be closely watched.