It has been an anniversary since the Hong Kong District Government officially invited the Taichung City Government to join the “Hong Kong Taiwan Inter-City Forum”. Jason Hu said that the communication between Hong Kong has increased. For example, Hong Kong has offered free visas for Taiwanese tourists, the number of flights between Taiwan and Hong Kong has increased from 21 to 35, and the number of tourists and occupation rate are still rising, now. He said that the niche between Taiwan and Hong Kong has been emerging and it will be more obvious if we invest more efforts into it. Although Taichung City Government is just a local government, it will yet play a key role in the communication between Taiwan and Hong Kong. In Taichung, you will see the bright future for the interchange of Taiwan and Hong Kong.

The Taichung City Government held a “Taiwan Hong Kong Interchange” press conference, hosted by the mayor. Mayor Jason Hu said that Hong Kong is very important to Taiwan. Since the Hong Kong Government invited the Taichung City Government to join the “Hong Kong Taiwan Inter-City Forum”, there are many substantial achievements on economic/trade and cultural interflow. For example, the Hong Kong Government has offered Taiwanese tourists free visas and the number of flights between Taichung and Hong Kong has increased from 21 to 35, which has created great benefit for the Taiwanese tourists from Central Taiwan, and the number of tourists traveling between the 2 cities has also been increasing. Even in this March, the low season for the tourism industry, the number of tourists was 22199, which has increased by 3407 from the 18992 for last June. In addition, the hotel occupation rate of the 2 cities also increased by 20%.

Jason Hu told the press that although the Mainland Affairs Council is the official authority on Taiwan and Hong Kong affairs, the Taichung City Government can contribute and play a key role to enhance the relationship between Taiwan and Hong Kong. In the future, Taichung City will not only fasten the economic and trade ties with Hong Kong but also promote the cultural interflow. The Taichung City Government was planning to increase the frequency for the Dakeng Thousand People Banquet and he planned to arrange one for the tourists from Hong Kong. Also, the scale of Hong Kong Night will be increased to Hong Kong Day and the well-known Chinese New Year band wagon march of Hong Kong will be invited to Taichung, as well.

He said that benefits for the interflow between Taiwan and Hong Kong will be tremendously increased. He believes that people would see the bright future for the communication between Taiwan and Hong Kong through the Taichung City Government’s efforts.

Jason Hu also mentioned that the relationship between Taichung and Hong Kong is cooperative and yet competitive. In the present, Taichung’s financial industry falls behind Hong Kong, but Taiwan exceeded Hong Kong in industrial development. If Taichung City and Taiwan County consolidate in the future, the land area of Taichung will be twice that of Hong Kong. Taichung will have an airport and harbor. He believes that if there is a shopping mall with a capacity of 800 to 1000 stores in Taichung’s harbor area, the economy will boom.