Taiwan is planning to bring in workers from Myanmar on a trial basis in the first half of the year, Minister of Foreign Affairs David Lin (林永樂) said, according to a local newspaper.
In a Commercial Times report on Thursday, Lin was cited as saying that Southeast Asia has been the focus of Taipei’s diplomatic initiatives in the past year, and it set up a representative office in Surabaya, Indonesia’s second-largest city, in December.
Myanmar’s government also set up the Myanmar Trade Office in Taipei in June last year, and the next step, Lin said, could be to introduce workers from that country into Taiwan.
Responding to speculation that Taiwan’s electronics companies will be allowed to hire workers from Myanmar, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said separately that the introduction of such workers will be conducted on a trial basis and not be confined initially to a specific industry.
Most of Taiwan’s foreign workers come from Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam, and most domestic helpers come from Indonesia.
However, threats by Indonesia’s government to stop sending domestic helpers to Taiwan by 2017 has led to efforts to diversify sources of foreign workers.
Myanmar’s government is willing to allow its workers to come to Taiwan, and the caliber and culture of that country’s workers seem to be a good fit for Taiwan’s needs, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has said.
Other potential new sources of migrant workers, according to the Commercial Times report, are Sri Lanka and Laos.
The Ministry of Labor denied a report on Dec. 3 that Taiwan was to introduce some 150 workers from Myanmar by the end of last year, saying that the two sides had yet to decide on a time frame for the move.
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