A. The Sharing of Experience for a County of Happiness

　　Yilan is a city with a sense of honor. The vision, devotion, and effort of our outstanding former administrators have given rise to many constructive projects to safeguard Yilan’s wonderful natural environment and created the well-known “Yilan Experience”.

　　Based on our social, cultural and historical traits, we created “Yilan Experiences” based on the central themes of governance proposed by the county government. They included “County of Environmental Protection”, then “County of Tourism”, “County of Culture”, “County of Information” and subsequently “County of Technology and Campus Town.” Yilan Experiences, the outcome of increased freedom and progress in politics, society and spaces, was in fact the government’s reply to the people’s needs and expectations.

　　Now, the official team at the county government advocates the idea of “County of Happiness”, a strategic objective that continues from and builds on the “Yilan Experience”. It is an idea that is based on realistic social and cultural criteria, and therefore, involves things that we know and understand.

　　“County of Happiness” – The ultimate goal of the administration that the official team under the leadership of Magistrate Tsung-hsien Lin wishes to achieve is to turn Yilan into a city of happiness.

　　We believe that, with the joint effort of all county residents and cooperation among the 12 township and city offices, we will achieve the administration’s vision for “a county of happiness” based on the existing “Yilan Experiences”.

　　This “County of Happiness” policy blueprint illustrates the visions of “Blissful Yilan”, which is comprised of six major phases: “Prosperous Economy”, “Secure Society”, “Whole Person Education”, “Harmonious Town”, “Environmental Conservation” and “Diverse Culture” and includes the specific objectives and strategies of policy implementation and the respective plans for the various policies and their implementation.

B. The Six Major Sides of the Happiness Cube

　　The political vision, “A New Administration of Hope for a Blissful Yilan”, proposing four major policy directions – “Economy & Industry”, “Space for Township”, “Social Welfare” and “Education & Culture”, was advocated from the beginning. After that, another important tactic for enhancing the competitiveness of Yilan, “Diverse Culture”, was added following a nearly eight month effort of repeated planning, adjusting and revising by the service team of the administration. “Environmental Conservation” was also designated to play a more significant role in the county’s politics. Furthermore, we held many consultative meetings on county policies, listening to others’ opinions and pooling together others’ ideas. Now, “Blissful Yilan” is like a happiness cube comprised of six major faces, “Prosperous Economy”, “Secure Society”, “Whole Person Education”, “Harmonious Town”, “Environmental Conservation” and “Diverse Culture”.

1. Prosperous Economy

　　“Cultivating favorable foundations for industrial and commercial developments, encouraging motivating forces that drive private investments and entrepreneurship and exploiting diverse energies for tourism activities and building the bedrock for a prosperous economy” are the four major objectives of policy implementation for “Prosperous Economy” with the aim of fulfilling the policy intentions of allowing everyone “a good living, a clean environment and a growing economy”. In this respect, the economic, industrial policies such as adding value to the traditional industries, developing new and emerging technological industries, promoting a happy creative industry, focusing on developing a diversified tourism industry and actively pushing for private participation and investment will be the specific policy directions that the administrative team tries to fulfill.

2. Secure Society

　　One of the most central tasks of the administration for “Blissful Yilan” involves perfecting the social welfare system. It is an essential part of the administration’s work. For this, we are going to integrate the various policy implementation activities in regard to caring, serving and paying attention to the lives of the county’s residents into the aspect of realizing a “secure society”. The administration team will regard establishing a sound network of social welfare and security and building a safe living environment as the goals.

　　Meanwhile, under the present trend toward a welfare state, only an aggressive service model of social welfare can satisfy the needs of the population living under state assistance, and it is one major model to enhance the welfare recipients’ quality of life through the various welfare service plans. The county government’s direction for social welfare improvement will focus on the service-oriented model of welfare supplemented by monetary assistance, meeting the public’s needs via sufficient service energies, to establish a sound system of social welfare and security.

3. Whole Person Education

　　“Education as the root and culture as the base” is the county government’s promise to our next generation. With a vision of education, the administration team will work on turning Yilan into “a joyful dream land for the children, a city of learning for the youth and a place of active life for the seniors” so that every Yilan native will be proud of this land.

4. Harmonious Town

　　In terms of township development, the county government plans to have “Harmonious Town” as one of the aspects of policy implementation, as well as a policy objective. It concerns constructing a more environment-friendly transportation system and public infrastructure, establishing more superb, green township features and planning forward-looking and ecological township spaces. In addition, we also seek to add new value to our human aspect from the unique space of our cultural heritage, affording our towns the feeling of never-fading charm of cultural intelligence in the environment, to make the features of Yilan even more special.

5. Environmental Conservation

　　Environmental protection policy should head in the direction of turning the concepts of environmental conservation into practical actions of environmental resources management. The reason for this is that, in the face of threats from drastic climate change, the persistence over a long period of time by the people of Yilan in protecting the environment is more than just a value of the county and a lifestyle choice but also our responsibility, as members of the global village, to the earth and the future generations. Therefore, the official team must adopt more aggressive concepts and measures so that Yilan, as a county that stresses environmental protection, would further develop pro-active thinking in dealing with and managing environmental resources in order to better accommodate the most stringent environmental requirements of the new era.
　　Our natural resources are the foundations of Yilan’s long-range development. In facing new environmental impacts, we must incorporate the thinking of environmental management, curbing exploitation and utilizing natural resources, to pay close attention to environmental concerns and to actively carry out the works of cultivation and conservation while supporting industrial and economic developments with the aim that the resources be used and sustained perpetually. Therefore, in stipulating our developmental strategy for environmental conservation, we address the issue on four major levels – a nature preservation policy that focuses on preemptive prevention, a public hazard prevention and control policy that stresses effective prevention and management, an environmental planning policy that emphasizes the sustainability of resources, and a disaster prevention and relief policy that calls for a swift and disciplined contingency plan.

6. Diverse Culture

　　“Diverse Culture” is the county government’s central tactic in countering inter-city competition. Taking “Blissful Yilan, a Creative City” as its theme, it hopes to, through the Creative City Forum, coalesce a policy consensus of building Yilan into a city of creativity. Special surveys that target Yilan’s talents and resources will be conducted to establish a complete database of the cultural and creative industries, which would serve as the basis for the training of future cultural and creative talent and for the development of the industries. Additionally, local experts from industry, government and academia will be invited to discuss and formulate guiding principles for public policy, proposing an overall development plan and strategy on the basis of these guiding principles. Finally, by integrating the various, industrial, governmental and academic groups in existing cultural and creative organizations in Yilan, a county-level commission for the promotion of cultural and creative developments will be established to draw up an initiative plan for the “creative city” concept, acting as the core organization for advancing the county’s cultural and creative industries.

C. Jointly Creating a Blissful, Grand Future

　　County affairs are about comprehensive, integrative construction. Building Yilan into a blissful city is the general goal that the administration strives to realize. We hope to make the local residents and all circles within the county understand and see the government’s vision and the specific steps being taken to implement the policies through closer contact and communication. The service team of the administration is always ready to listen to criticisms and comments from local residents and different sectors of society within the county, and so, please be candid with any opinions. Finally, please let us join hands and work together in our efforts to turn Yilan into a blissful city.