The three main candidates in the Taipei mayoral election made promises to increase affordable housing and expand childcare subsidies during a televised debate Saturday, in an attempt to appeal to young voters in Taiwan’s capital.
Only about 16,000 babies were born in Taipei city in 2021, which represents a drop of about 50 percent from 2014, Legislator and Kuomintang (KMT) Taipei mayoral candidate Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) said during the debate.
According to Taipei City Government data, 29,024 babies were born in Taipei in 2014, the last year in the second term of former KMT Mayor Hau Lung-pin (郝龍斌). The number of newborns in Taipei reached a peak of 29,498 in 2012, and since then the city has seen a decline most years.
Chiang promised that if elected Taipei mayor he would introduce incentives to encourage people to have more children and relieve the financial burden on new parents.
These would include raising “baby bonuses” while expanding access to social housing for families with young children, according to the 43-year-old legislator.
The city government would pay a lump sum “baby bonus” of NT$40,000 (US$1,249) to a household for their first child, NT$45,000 for a second and NT$50,000 for a third, Chiang said.
Currently, the “baby bonus” for a first child is NT$20,000, NT$25,000 for a second, and NT$30,000 for a third in Taipei.
In addition, he said, families with young children will receive priority and a 20 percent discount if they apply for social housing.
Former Deputy Taipei Mayor Huang Shan-shan (黃珊珊), who is running for mayor as an independent but has received the backing of the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), said the low birth rate has become a “national security” problem for Taiwan.
However, she noted neither of her opponents, namely Chiang and former Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Health Minister Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), had come up with effective solutions in their roles as a member of the Legislature’s social welfare committee or health minister.
Chen pointed out that the government had rolled out multiple policies to encourage families to have babies and reduce the financial burden of having children on young parents.
Chen said Taipei still faced a more serious population loss than any other place in Taiwan, suggesting the city government is to blame on this issue.
Ministry of the Interior (MOI) figures show that Taipei’s population fell from 2.7 million in 2014 to 2.52 million in 2021, a drop of over 177,900.
In the meantime, three of the six special municipalities have seen an increase in population in the same period, including New Taipei, Taoyuan and Taichung, while Kaohsiung and Tainan had saw their population drop by less than 50,000, the figures show.
However, population loss can be caused by multiple factors, including birth and death rates, emigration, etc.
To encourage young people to have children, Chen said he would pay a monthly stipend of NT$36,000 for postpartum care while providing more parenting guidance for new parents in the city.
Soaring housing prices were another focus at Saturday’s debate co-organized by television stations TVBS Media Inc. and Sanlih E-Television Co. Ltd. (SET).
While all three candidates pledged to prioritize the provision of affordable housing to young people who do not own property in the city, none of them proposed plans to lower housing prices.
The latest MOI data indicates the ratio of housing prices to income in Taipei is 16.22, which means that a resident cannot afford to buy an apartment in the city unless they do not eat or drink and save all their earnings for over 16 years.
The three candidates promised to build more social housing units, expedite urban renewal projects, turn defunct schools and hotels into social housing, as well as expand rent subsidies.
However, none of them committed to giving up their reelection bid should they fail to deliver on their promises in the first two years of their mayorship, when pressed to do so by a media representative during the debate.
Speaking about her track record, Huang, 53, said she had been a Taipei city councilor for 21 years before taking up the post of deputy Taipei mayor in 2019.
“I began to learn how to be a mayor three years ago,” Huang said, adding that she was “on the front line” fighting COVID-19 when the city was hit by two waves of local infections in 2021 and 2022.
At the same time, she criticized her two rivals for constantly sparring with one another, urging voters to vote for her on Nov. 26 and make her the first female mayor in Taipei if they have had enough of the “vile competition” between the KMT and the DPP.
Meanwhile, Chiang touted his experience working as a corporate lawyer in Silicon Valley, a global high-tech hub in the United States, saying that he would bring innovation to Taipei and transform it into a global city.
“Taipei was once the richest city [in Taiwan], but it has now become the most battered place,” Chiang said, adding that he would “reinvigorate” Taipei if given a chance to lead the city.
Chen, who resigned from the post of health minister and head of the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) in July to run for the mayorship of Taipei, took the opportunity to apologize to people whose lives and business operations have been impacted by the government’s disease prevention rules.
He denied accusations that he blocked the purchase of imported COVID-19 vaccines to profit from a locally manufactured one. “As the CECC head, all I was thinking about was how to control the spread of COVID-19 and minimize casualties.”
However, Chen did not respond to questions related to CECC controversies over vaccine and rapid testing kit acquisitions, as well as quarantine policies, saying only that he had addressed them before.
The 68-year-old former minister also said he had no intention to run for the presidency in the future and would see his mayorship as the last mile of his career as a public servant.
Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel