By Chung Li-hua and Jonathan Chin / Staff reporter, with staff writer

President Tsai Ing-wen’s （蔡英文） Presidential Southern Office is to begin operations this month at the Kaohsiung City Government Fongshan Administration Center, sources said.

Part of Tsai’s campaign platform of facilitating balanced economic, political and cultural development between the nation’s northern and southern regions, the president had pledged to establish a Presidential Southern Office on unused public land in the south.

The Cabinet decided to establish the office at the center, which is to formally open its doors during a visit by Tsai to Kaohsiung this month, the sources said.

Tsai in July explored the possibility of establishing the office in the center with a number of academics, while a number of alternative facilities in Kaohsiung had also been considered by her staff, but were ultimately rejected, the sources said.

Members of Tsai’s staff only selected the center after discussions with the Kaohsiung City Government, the sources said.

According to the sources, the decision was based on: security needs; the relative newness of the center, which was completed in 2013; its convenient location between the city’s urban and rural areas; and because seven local government agencies are also using the facility.

Taiwan’s political center of gravity has been in the greater Taipei area and the establishment of the office would facilitate the president’s meetings with academics and politicians in the south, said a Presidential Office official, who requested anonymity, adding that it would showcase Tsai’s policy of balanced development of the nation’s regions.

Concerns that the office might create redundancies in the Executive Yuan’s southern branch are unfounded, because the two organizations have different roles that do not overlap, the official said, adding that the office has no additional budget or staff, while the branch is a regional center to execute Cabinet policy.

新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES

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