Counties to forego, cut year-end celebrations in bid to cut corners

The county governments of Tainan, Pingtung and Hualien have canceled activities on new year’s eve.

Several counties will not hold any similar celebrations as last year. They include Taipei and Yilan counties in the north, Miaoli and Taichung in central Taiwan, Chiayi in the southwest region, and the offshore Kinmen County.

Nantou and Yunlin will scale down expenses.

Officials said a tight budget is the key factor for them canceling the event.

They pointed out that many people had hoped for a turn for the better for 2008 after the election of a new president and a new ruling party.

However, a gloomy mood remains prevalent among many people as a result of the rising jobless rate and pessimistic outlook for 2009 overshadowed by the global economic slowdown.

The International Monetary Fund maintains its forecast for Taiwan’s economic growth rate of 3.8 percent this year.

Although Taiwan’s economy will still achieve a positive growth for the coming year, the IMF has just revised downwards the expected growth rate by shaving 0.3 percentage points off it to 2.2 percent, same as the projected world performance.

Some officials said that new year celebrations in past years drew mainly local residents without the effect of attracting many tourists to their areas.

But officials at cities and counties that will maintain the tradition of holding large-scale activities said there is nothing wrong with letting residents have a good time in welcoming the arrival of a new year.

Such events will certainly encourage domestic consumption by drumming up public and business activities, they said.

Taichung City Government officials said the celebrations held last year attracted 150,000 people in the central Taiwan region plus tourist groups from overseas.

The budget of NT$4 million actually helped to generate business transactions amounting to NT$100 million while providing a stage for talented young singers and artists, they said.

Organizers at the Yunlin County Government said the events contain the promotion of the sale of fruit and other souvenirs to help stimulate business activities.

The Kaohsiung City Government has allocated the highest budget of more than NT$8 million for the new year revelries, representing an increase of NT$2 million from an year earlier. Both figures have beat the expenditures of the capital Taipei for two years in a row.

The Taipei City Government spent NT$3.6 million on a fireworks display and related activities in the area surrounding the landmark Taipei 101 Tower.

Officials are prepared to increase the budget to NT$6 million for the various events on Dec. 31, including a collective countdown to welcome the advent of the new year

Some TV stations that have signed contract with local governments to provide a live broadcast of the year-end parties said they hope companies will continue to help sponsor the events with commercials.

They said there are still suppliers that want to buy commercial time to target the consumers who will soon receive shopping vouchers from the government to encourage domestic consumption.

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