TAIPEI: Taipei County Magistrate Chou Hsi-wei pledged to turn the county into a modern international metropolis after "the Ministry of the Interior" (MOI) on Tuesday approved the county's application to become a special municipality.

Chou said at a press conference yesterday his sense of nervous anticipation about the transition will likely stay with him until the Executive Yuan gives final approval in the next week or two.

He stressed that the upgrade is the start of real responsibilities, to carry out his plan to turn Taipei into the new, modern international metropolis to be called "New Taipei City".

The even bigger challenge will be to enhance the quality of life for the people who live there, he added.

After the upgrade, Taipei county will increase its force of civil servants to 15,000. But Chow said the government will increase manpower at the rate of 10-15 percent per year to stay within budget.

An MOI panel approved the upgrade of Taipei county, Taichung city and Taichung county, and Kaohsiung city and Kaohsiung county to special municipalities on Tuesday.

A total of 11 applications were filed. The panel rejected the upgrade applications submitted by Taoyuan county, Changhua county, and Yuling county and Chiayi county. But it failed to reach consensus on whether Tainan city and Tainan county should be merged and upgraded. An MOI spokesman said it will be referred to the Executive Yuan for a decision.

Special municipalities are entitled to higher funding allotments than other local governments and under the direct control of the Executive Yuan.

Before the upgrade, Taiwan had two special municipalities: Taipei city and Kaohsiung city.

If the MOI panel's recommendations are approved by the Executive Yuan, incumbent Kaohsiung City Mayor Chen Chu, Taipei County Magistrate Chou Hsi-wei and Taichung City Mayor Jason Hu will have their tenures prolonged for another year until the heads of the newly formed special municipalities are elected in late 2010.

Taichung City Deputy Mayor Hsiao Chia-chi said at a press conference that since the election of the head of the new Taichung special municipality will not be held until next year, Hu will take his time in considering whether he will enter the race.

"The decision will not be made until next year," Hsiao quoted Hu as saying.

Hu originally said he had no intention to run for the mayoralty but many residents expressed the wish that he stay. Hu didn't find it an easy decision, Hsiao said.

But Kaohsiung City Mayor Chen Chu wasted no time in declaring that she intends to seek re-election in the soon to be combined municipalities of Kaohsiung city and Kaohsiung county.

Chen described the step for her as "simply natural", noting that the merging of the two municipal entities would mean new and greater challenges.

"I will strive to win Kaohsiung residents' support with the outstanding performance of my administrative team and will definitely come up with a blueprint for the development of the Greater Kaohsiung area soon," she said during an interview yesterday on SET TV.

Taiwan's stocks surged 2.95 percent yesterday, partly fuelled by the government plan to create new municipalities which is seen as a stimulant to land prices.

The TAIEX index opened slightly lower yesterday, but soon rose and extended its gains all the way to close sharply higher at 6,380.08, up 182.61 points, or 2.95 percent from Tuesday's close. The government's plans to upgrade the status of some local cities and counties and merge some of these municipalities pushed the property sub-index up 2.9 percent, dealers said.

China Daily/Agencies

(HK Edition 06/25/2009 page2)