Taipei Times
Date: Apr 29, 2019
By: Lee I-chia / Staff reporter
Taipei’s eastern shopping area is not in decline, it has only performed relatively weaker
Shuttered storefronts are seen in Taipei’s eastern shopping area on April 7.Photo: Tsai Ssu-pei, Taipei Times
compared with other areas, Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) said, adding that stores should collaborate on a positioning strategy.
The closure of stores and restaurants in the area has been reported in the past few months, and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Taipei city councilors have criticized the city government over the issue.
In 2017, consumer spending in Taipei was approximately NT$12.5 trillion (US$404.44 billion at the current exchange rate) and grew to NT$13.2 trillion last year, or about 30 percent of the national total, Ko said in a video he posted yesterday on Facebook of a speech he made at the Taipei Business Areas Development and Innovation Forum on Thursday that cited his own report on the eastern shopping area.
Money flow in Taipei grew 5.7 percent last year, while the city had a record 237,523 registered businesses and stores as of the end of last year, up 6 percent from a year earlier, he said. [FULL STORY]
