The Cabinet yesterday approved a White Paper on population policy aimed at increasing the fertility rate, which is now the lowest in the world.
The fertility rate hit 1.1 last year and the government would like to see it rise to 1.6 by 2015, the average rate for countries belonging to the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
"The White Paper lists 125 measures to be implemented by 11 government departments that will help boost the fertility rate," Minister of the Interior Lee Yi-yang (李逸洋) told a press conference after the weekly Cabinet meeting.
One measure would expand the scope of the educational subsidy for children under the age of five at two different stages. The threshold for households applying for the subsidy, currently set at an annual income of less than NT$600,000 (US$19,200), would be raised to NT$800,000 for the 2009 academic year and then to NT$1.1 million by 2011.
The amount of the subsidies, which vary according to household income and number of children, would also increase, with the maximum allotment jumping from NT$20,000 to NT$60,000.
The percentage of children under the age of five covered by the plan would increase from 85.57 percent now to 87.88 percent next year and to 93.39 percent by 2011, Lee said.
Other issues addressed in the White Paper include the increase in immigration and the nation's rapidly aging society.
The paper estimated that the total population of elderly would increase from 10 percent last year to 37 percent by 2051, while the dependency rate of the elderly will drop from 7.2 last year to 3.3 in 2026 and 1.5 in 2051, creating a heavy burden on the care system.
The White Paper says the number of foreign spouses registered between 1987 and last December was 399,038 and that 66 percent of them were from China, Hong Kong or Macau.
One of every 5.5 marriages was an international marriage and one in every 9.8 infants was born to a cross-national family, the paper said.
Lee said that the ministry had ruled out a suggestion that new regulations limit the number of foreign spouses.
"The ministry considered the suggestion inappropriate because foreign spouses give the country a pluralistic society, which we should cherish," Lee said.
"The reason to address our immigrant society is to help foreign spouses fit into society," he said.
‘TRUSTED PARTNER’: The company said that it is ‘committed to help bring an end to the pandemic,’ while the health minister denied it was a ‘chips for vaccines’ deal BioNTech on Wednesday said that it plans to provide its COVID-19 vaccine to Taiwan after Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中) announced that in December last year the German company at the last minute halted a deal for the nation to to buy 5 million doses. Earlier on Wednesday, Chen said that officials were on the verge of announcing the deal when BioNTech pulled the plug, although he added that it was still pending and had not been torn up. While he did not say that China was to blame, Chen implied there was a political dimension to the decision. “BioNTech
SPY GAMES: For more than 20 years, intelligence officers traveled to China, where they identified other MIB personnel and allegedly traded secrets for money and gifts The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office yesterday indicted four retired Military Intelligence Bureau (MIB) officials, who are accused of providing China with a list of bureau personnel and other classified materials while attempting to recruit colleagues into a spy network in Taiwan. Prosecutors charged Chang Chao-jan (張超然), Chou Tien-tzu (周天慈) and Wang Ta-wang (王大旺), former colonels at the bureau, and Yueh Chih-chung (岳志忠) — a former major general and chief of the MIB’s Fifth Bureau, where he was in charge of sending agents to China on covert assignments — with breaches of the National Security Act (國家安全法) and the National Intelligence Services
CONTINUED VIGILANCE: People would still be required to wear masks at eight types of public spaces and border controls would continue, Chen Shih-chung told reporters The government’s autumn-winter COVID-19 prevention program is to continue beyond Sunday, but eating and drinking on high-speed trains would be allowed from Monday, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) announced yesterday. Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the center, said that while there were no new confirmed cases in Taiwan yesterday, the global COVID-19 situation remains serious, so the autumn-winter COVID-19 prevention program would be extended beyond its Sunday deadline. “Border control measures, including requiring a negative polymerase chain reaction test result obtained within three days of boarding a plane to Taiwan, and undergoing quarantine in a
MORE RISK? Three Taiwanese family members were found to have the Brazilian variant, which CDC Deputy Director-General Philip Lo said might be more infectious From Wednesday, all travelers who have been in Brazil in the past 14 days are required to be quarantined at a centralized facility after arriving in Taiwan and undergo a COVID-19 test upon ending quarantine, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) announced yesterday. Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the center, said that starting from 12am on Wednesday, all travelers arriving from Brazil, including those who have transited through the country in the past 14 days, would have to stay at a centralized quarantine facility. “They will be tested for COVID-19 upon completing the 14-day quarantine, and they
RSS