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Updated Friday, February 17, 2012 0:01 am TWN, By Grace Soong, The China Post

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Taiwan to become cultural leader of Chinese world: Ma

President Ma Ying-jeou yesterday voiced his vision of Taipei becoming not only Taiwan's cultural center in the near future, but also the leader in cultural development among all Chinese-speaking societies and throughout Asia.

“Engineering and construction can make a city bigger in size, but only culture can enable a city to become greater in scale,” Ma remarked at the construction site of the Taipei Art Center (台北藝術中心) in Taipei's Shilin District during the inauguration ceremony of the construction, which is scheduled to be completed in 2015.

The plan for the 2-hectare art center was first conceived in 2003 when Ma was incumbent Taipei City mayor. Later on during the term of current Mayor Hau Lung-bin, Rem Koolhaas led the Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) in winning the international bidding of the project and will be the architect behind the Taipei Art Center.

Koolhaas is a world-renowned architect who won the 2001 Pritzker Prize — the Oscar of the architecture industry — and who was named by Time Magazine as one of the world's top 100 most influential people in 2008

Upon hearing Koolhaas' briefing on his designs and plans for the building, Ma expressed admiration for the architect's creativity and ambition in constructing an extraordinarily multifaceted space amid bustling Taipei, and conveyed his faith that “The Taipei Art Center will become as much Taipei's new landmark as Asia's new landmark, and it will also become a new landmark in the world.”

Construction of the Taipei Art Center is part of a comprehensive plan to enhance Taiwan's cultural leadership, Ma said. In addition to the art center, the central government plans to devote NT$90 billion in carrying out the “Grand National Palace Museum Project” plan (大故宮計劃) — through which the exhibition space of the National Palace Museum will expand by a maximum of 5 times — as well as other cultural construction projects.

“Taipei will serve as the cultural leader to inspire all Chinese-speaking societies around the globe,” Ma asserted.

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