Workshop Preparing for Sustainable Planning of Taipei County

November 2006 - Professionals and key stakeholders of Taipei County are considering taking a different approach to development planning and change focused on innovation and increase of quality of life. Taipei County, one of the richest counties of Taiwan, with about 3.7 million citizens, and surrounding Taipei City, is taking initiatives to improve its capacity for strategic and integrated planning and management of the county to achieve sustainable development.

"Guiding development in a dynamic economy of Taipei County is a real challenge" said Professor Dr. Lee Hong Yuan, Vice-Governor of Taipei County Government. In this effort, decision-makers and professionals are challenged by the engineering-driven and un-aesthetically designed and built infrastructure in many places in the county. With budgetary limitations the government is challenged to find creative solutions for emerging problems in the county. "The culture of business-as-usual among the civil servants of my government needs to be changed to ensure the attractiveness of Taipei County" said Governor Hsi-Wei Chou, a passionate leader who intents to improve the readiness of his government to be more responsive to changes and to work with stakeholders in his county.



Upon the invitation of the Taipei County Government (TCG), Atem Ramsundersingh and Chen Tin-Yu organized a workshop, in close collaboration with a core team of staff of TCG. This workshop was held in Taipei County from 23-24 November 2006. More than 30 professionals attended the workshop, while many more staff members have been able to exchange their views with the CE-DESD team during fieldtrips to several locations and projects in the county. In intense discussions and one World Caf¨¦ session the senior staff members of TCG explored the possibilities for a new and integrated approach for planning and development, which would engage relevant stakeholders in the county. The workshop ended with an invitation from the vice-governor to the CE-DESD Team to submit a proposal for a strategic planning process that would not only deliver a vision for Taipei County, but also define concrete short and long term priority actions and a restructured governance model that would be able to guide implementation of new policies. CE-DESD experts will continue to advice the TCG in taking a decision on adopting new approaches for planning.

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Last update on Friday, January 05, 2007