On September 9th , Hsinchu County Magistrate Chiu Ching-chun, accompanied by Hung Yun-chie, director of the Low-carbon and Sustainable Office, Environmental Protection Bureau of Hsinchu and, Tu Jin-dong, director of the office of the County Council Speaker Chang Chen-rong and others, attended the Japan-Taiwan Exchange Meeting in Wakayama City. He shared the city governance experience of Hsinchu County that won it the national highest level “Silver grade” low carbon and sustainable homeland rating with various quarters of Japanese society. Taiwan’s official representative to Japan Frank Hsieh was also in attendance.
Magistrate Chiu also visited the Momoyama Recycling Center where he learned about the process of turning sewage and organic mud into compost and using bio gas to generate electricity. At the Environmental Science and Technology Hall of Kao in Wakayama Factory, he saw the importance of efforts made by enterprises with respect to carbon reduction and product carbon footprint certification. He also visited the Kishigawa Line to observe the Cat Stationmaster Theme Train that uses car station master Tama to encourage people to use low carbon transport, not only having a highlight to attract attention, also helping with carbon reduction, an idea similar in ways to the Hsinchu County Animation and Comic Train of Nine Stations of the Neiwan Line. Chiu also made a special visit to Wakayama City’s mayor Masahiro Obana, discussing the idea of sustainable development and expressed the hope that the city and county can be twinned and exchanged further enhanced.
Magistrate Chiu stated, in response to global warming, the county government established the low carbon and sustainable homeland promotion platform in 2013, with himself at the helm. It integrated the resources of 12 county government departments and bureaus and promoted various energy saving and carbon reduction projects, and has set five main environmental protection targets. In 2015, it won the honor of receiving Taiwan’s highest level “silver grade” low carbon and sustainable homeland rating.
This visit to Wakayama City can be traced back to the signing of an MOU between the Taiwan Hsinchu Green Industry Association set up by county’s Environmental Protection Bureau and the Japan-Taiwan Exchange Association. A team from the county government was invited to visit Wakayama to deepen exchange and to allow each side to learn from the other’s strength, in particular the case of the Kishigawa Line, a rural line once on the verge of bankruptcy. Given a new lease of life by the cat station masters, in its new role it brings 1.1 billion yen into the city coffers annually, not only attracting tourists but also promoting low carbon transport. This case is similar to the Hsinchu County Animation and Comic Train of Nine Stations of the Neiwan Line idea.
Sustainable homeland is the objective of the operation of every city. The six main operational functions, namely resource recycling, low carbon life, green transportation, ecological greening, green energy and energy saving and sustainable operation all require the full support of government, businesses and the public, everyone working together to push Hsinchu County further towards the targets of friendly environment and low carbon life.