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Central Taiwan Regional Governance Platform increased cooperation members! Originally, there were only 4 members in the platform, which were Taichung City, Changhua County, Nantou County and Miaoli County. In 2019, Hsinchu City, Yunlin County and Chiayi City jointed. After that, the amount of its members came to 8 after Hsinchu City jointed on February 14th this year. The leaders of these members gathered at the Taichung City Hall, announcing the official launch of the Central Taiwan Regional Governance Platform, which included Taichung City Mayor Lu ShiowYen, Nantou County Mayor Hsu ShuHua, Chiayi City Mayor Huang MinHui, Yunlin County Mayor Chang LiShan, Changhua County Mayor Wang HuiMei, Miaoli County Mayor Chung TungChin, Hsinchu City Mayor Kao HungAn, and Hsinchu County Mayor Yang WenKe. 　　 Nantou County Mayor Hsu ShuHua expressed her gratitude to Taichung City Mayor Lu ShiowYen for her long-term efforts to integrate the 8 counties and cities in Central Taiwan, and welcomed Hsinchu City Mayor Kao HungAn to the platform. She pointed out that the platform has high effectiveness with more than 100 cases accomplished in the past, and has reached high degree of consensus regarding the cooperation in transportation, sightseeing, agriculture, environmental protection, etc., amoung the members. Especially, the close and complementary cooperation between Nantou County and geographically-connected Taichung City, Changhua County and Yulin County has provided a lot of assistance for Nantou County to cover its own shortages. She believes that through the Central Taiwan Regional Governance Platform, whether from the general direction of policy or from exchange of experiences, the welfare of Nantou County residents will be improved by the result of the increase of the platform members. In addition to affirming the benefits of the cooperation platform, Yunlin County Mayor Chang LiShan thanked Lin MingChen, the former mayor of Nantou County for his assistance in improving the connected transportation of Cao Ling area in Yunlin County. Besides, Hsinchu County Mayor Yang WenKe thanked Hsu ShuHua, the super popular county mayor, for her campaign for his first county mayor election, which was definitely one of the reasons of his victory. Moreover, Miaoli County Mayor Chung TungChin emphasized that the most commendable advantage of the platform is its cooperation regardless of political parties. During the joint media interview, Taichung City Mayor Lu ShiowYen, on behalf of 8 mayors, emphasized that the establishment of the Central Taiwan Regional Governance Platform has two meanings. First, close member cooperation maximums residents’ happiness. Since the 8 counties and cities belong to the same area and each are geologically next to the other, only by sharing resources and working closely with each other can the 7 million residents enjoy 8 times the convenience and happiness. Second, only with unity can local governments be stronger. Fighting alone is weak. In order to make Central Taiwan develop upwards, all members must stay together in spite to make local public opinion be taken seriously. So that central government will also face up to local governments’ opinions and demands. In response to the popular issue recently regarding to the 10-month or 12-month substitute teacher salary, Mayor Lu stated that the salary of substitute teachers is related to the rights and interests of all students, as a result, there should be a consistent system throughout Taiwan. At the meeting of Executive Yuan on February 22, she represented the 8 counties and cities in Central Taiwan to make a proposal to the central government, striving for a national unified salary payment system for substitute teachers and suggesting that central government should bear all the increased expenditures and should provide subsidies to each county and city governments. For this issue, County Mayor Hsu pointed out that Nantou County is in financial difficulties, and the 12-month substitute teacher salary will increase the expenditure of the county treasury by more than 60 million dollars a year. However, considering the education and learning rights of students, the county government will try its best to work on it to provide teachers with a stable job security. The relevant details will be announced when the Nantou Teachers Union pays a visit to the county government recently.