The winners of the 21st Golden Thumb Awards for Private Participation in Infrastructure have been announced! The Kaohsiung City Government won the biggest award. Water Resources Bureau of Kaohsiung City Government won the high distinction award of the Government Agency Award for the BTO Project of LinHai Sewage Treatment Plant and Reclaimed Water with Private Participation, which is the only high distinction award in the current term. The project is the first domestic project in which a sewage treatment plant and a water reclamation plant are constructed and operated simultaneously by private investment. The main treatment technology adopts Membrane Bio-Reactor (MBR), which greatly improves the water quantity and quality of recycled wastewater and makes recycled water the second source of water for the city, which effectively realizes the circular economy and mitigates the problem of water shortage in southern Taiwan. Therefore, this project was favored by the jury in the end. In addition, the 2022 Performance-based contract (OT) for road inspection, maintenance and repair in Zhongshan district in Taipei City of New Construction Office of Public Works Department of Taipei City Government and the Renovation, Operation and Transfer Project of Xindian and Shulin Refuse Incineration Plants in New Taipei City of Environmental Protection Department, New Taipei City Government, were both awarded with the excellence award of the government agency award and the innovation award of the supplementary award, which are the only two organizations that were awarded with two awards this year.
The Ministry of Finance stated that, among the 34 applications for this year's Golden Thumb Award, 19 of them were selected in the preliminary evaluation. After the evaluation committee visited the site of each applicant to conduct on-site audit, and after sufficient discussion in the re-assessment meeting, a total of 14 private participation promotion projects stood out from the rest, among which six government team awards were selected. Among the six government agency awards, there were one high distinction, three excellence awards, and two honorable mention awards, and among the eight private team awards, there were five excellence awards and three honorable mention awards. The list of winners and the reasons for winning the awards are detailed in the Appendix.
The Ministry of Finance further explained that among this year's award-winning teams, five projects were applied by government and private teams jointly, which fully demonstrates that the government and the private sector are harmonizing their efforts to provide quality public services, which is rare and heartening. Moreover, it also shows that the involvement of the private sector contributes to enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of the quality of infrastructure. This year's Golden Thumb Award Ceremony is scheduled to be held on December 1, 2023 at the Taipei International Convention Center. We look forward to welcoming you all to the ceremony and congratulating all the award-winning teams!
The latest information is also posted on the Golden Thumb Award section of the private participation in infrastructure information system of the Ministry of Finance (https://ppp.mof.gov.tw/WWW/gta/news.aspx).
Press release contact: Section Chief Chen, Tzu-Wen
Phone number: (02)2322-8218