Economic Daily News- The results of 2014 City Happiness Index Survey are out today (Sept 17), and Hsinchu County is named the happiest city in Taiwan Main Island. Hsinchu County is also the best in health care satisfaction among residents, the second in life satisfaction in Taiwan, and the fourth in educational achievements, improved by nine spots from last year. Magistrate Chiu Ching-Chun shared the happiness strategies for developing Hsinchu County into a health city that is friendly to senior citizens.
“Though the population of Hsinchu County had been constantly growing, its medical service level was dead last in Taiwan.” Magistrate Chiu said. “The suggested number of hospital beds is 35 per 10,000 people; it was, however, only 17 for Hsinchu County, not even half of what’s needed.” Since Magistrate Chiu took the office, in the past 4 years, he has been promoting the establishment of Hsinchu Biomedical Science Park Hospital. In May 2013, the Hsinchu Biomedical Science Park Plan of National Science Council has finally been approved by the Council for Economic Planning and Development. National Taiwan University Hospital was the one that designed and constructed the 728-bed medical-center-scaled hospital at Hsinchu Biomedical Science Park. With the estimated investment of 5.498 billion, it will consist of 11 medical departments, including the Department of General Internal Medicine, Department of Surgery, Women and Children’s Center ,Tumor Center, Critical Care Center, etc. to improve the medical quality and resources in Hsinchu County and to take care of the health of the residents. Its groundbreaking ceremony will be held on end of October 2014.
Magistrate Chiu also mentioned that the elderly pension program excludes the rich to make every penny counts. After a four-year effort, the pension paid by the government has gradually grown from 2.3 billion to 2.92 billion yearly. The County has introduced new social welfare services to extend the care to disadvantaged groups, including the nation’s first NT$ 300,000 insurance for the residents, free medical exams for the elders over age 70, three routes of free medical shuttle buses— Ermei to Beipu, Xinfeng and Baoshan, senior cards and caring cards offering, etc. As the saying goes, “Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day; teach him to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” The county administration has increased the rehabilitation buses from 4 to 20, established senior citizen learning centers, provided senior adult education programs in every township, and held community activities. With the help of these social resources, senior citizens will have a better live-and-learn environment and live an energetic and colorful life.
The county administration has as well spared no effort to promote education; forty percent of the county budget was contributed to education, including the constructions for Anxing Middle School, Dongxing Middle school and Liujia High School, 3.1 billion in bridge construction and 6 billion in sanitary sewer system improvements. These investments have not only given the students in the county a better studying environment but also created a more convenient living environment for the residents.
The guests at the ceremony included Huang Su-Juan, the publisher of Economic Daily News, Du Ying-Zong, the vice chairman of Nan Shan Life Insurance Company, Yu Zhi-Qin, chief editor of Economic Daily News, and Zhan Xiu-Lian, director of General Development Department of Hsinchu County.