Taichung City Government initiates a pioneering act in Taiwan to send short messages to notify a land owner of the compensation schedule for his or her expropriated land. In addition to an official notification letter, this supplementary short message service (SMS) will be offered if an applicant provides his/her mobile phone number.
Taking into account that an SMS receiver may fear it is a fraud or a commercial, the Land Administration Bureau (LAB) has already told each applicant of this convenience measure when he or she was applying for the compensation fees. This SMS notification measure was meanwhile published on the LAB website and a press release was held in the beginning of its implementation. Even so, our colleagues at the Land Administration Bureau still received many phone calls from the SMS receivers to check whether the notification was true or not. After our clear and complete explanation, most of the callers exclaimed, “It is incredible for Taichung City Government to offer such an attentive and convenient and innovative service.” We have also found that quite a number of people replied to thank us for sending them the SMS. It is really our pleasure to see that the interaction between Taichung City Government and our citizens is so amiable. It is always our aim at the Taichung City Government to provide two-way convenient services to our citizens.