A survey of foreign nationals living in this country found that 88.8 percent think that Taiwanese are “friendly.”
The overall satisfaction for bilingual markings on product packaging, however, remained the lowest category in the survey, with just 19.5 percent of respondents saying they were satisfied.
National Immigration Agency (NIA) Director-General Hsieh Li-kung (謝立功) said he was surprised that 74.8 percent of respondents said they “do not know about” or “had no comment” on the Information for Foreigners Web site and the International Community Service Hotline.
The hotline (0800-024-111) provides Chinese, English or Japanese language help for foreigners on issues such as visas, employment, taxation, health insurance and transportation.
Hsieh said the center received 53,072 calls last year, up from 30,712 in 2007, and the number was even higher this year.
“But apparently we need to do more to advertise the 24-hour service,” he said.
The survey polled white-collar foreign workers, with 1,076 valid samples received from a population of 18,532. The poll will serve as a reference for the government in reviewing its policies on attracting professional personnel.
Hsieh said there are about 960,000 foreigners and immigrants in the country, including manufacturing and construction workers, careworkers and people married to Taiwanese.
The survey found that foreigners’ overall satisfaction with the living environment has continued to increase, rising from 67.9 percent last year to 75.1 percent this year.
Many respondents said they found it difficult to understand rules and regulations governing foreign workers, and just 38.3 percent said they were satisfied.
Satisfaction levels for the friendliness of employees and coworkers were 78.5 percent and 87.1 percent respectively, while the satisfaction level for wages was 62.1 percent.
The overall satisfaction level with Taiwan’s cultural tolerance was 65.2 percent. In this category, 41.4 percent of respondents thought Taiwanese were unfamiliar with the culture of their home countries, 44.2 percent considered the English ability of Taiwanese to be average, while 72.1 percent said Taiwanese were accepting, tolerant and open to learning about different cultures.
In other survey news, the Research, Development and Evaluation Commission released the results yesterday of a nationwide poll on the digital divide. It has conducted such polls since 2001.
The commission found that 67.7 percent of respondents above the age of 12 and 78 percent of households have Internet access and the Internet population is close to 14 million.
This year, the significant increase in middle-aged and senior-citizen Internet users indicates that efforts by the government to narrow the digital divide have achieved some results, Research, Development and Evaluation Commission Minister Chu Chin-peng (朱景鵬) said.
Another key finding was that the Internet connection rate for households has stagnated at 24 percent for households with a monthly income of less than NT$20,000 and 96 percent for households with an income of more than NT$70,000.
The survey was conducted between July 13 and Aug. 21.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is expected to start construction of its 1.4-nanometer chip manufacturing facilities at the Central Taiwan Science Park (CTSP, 中部科學園區) as early as October, the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper) reported yesterday, citing the park administration. TSMC acquired land for the second phase of the park’s expansion in Taichung in June. Large cement, construction and facility engineering companies in central Taiwan have reportedly been receiving bids for TSMC-related projects, the report said. Supply-chain firms estimated that the business opportunities for engineering, equipment and materials supply, and back-end packaging and testing could reach as high as
CHAMPIONS: President Lai congratulated the players’ outstanding performance, cheering them for marking a new milestone in the nation’s baseball history Taiwan on Sunday won their first Little League Baseball World Series (LLBWS) title in 29 years, as Taipei’s Dong Yuan Elementary School defeated a team from Las Vegas 7-0 in the championship game in South Williamsport, Pennsylvania. It was Taiwan’s first championship in the annual tournament since 1996, ending a nearly three-decade drought. “It has been a very long time ... and we finally made it,” Taiwan manager Lai Min-nan (賴敏男) said after the game. Lai said he last managed a Dong Yuan team in at the South Williamsport in 2015, when they were eliminated after four games. “There is
Democratic nations should refrain from attending China’s upcoming large-scale military parade, which Beijing could use to sow discord among democracies, Mainland Affairs Council Deputy Minister Shen You-chung (沈有忠) said. China is scheduled to stage the parade on Wednesday next week to mark the 80th anniversary of Japan’s surrender in World War II. The event is expected to mobilize tens of thousands of participants and prominently showcase China’s military hardware. Speaking at a symposium in Taichung on Thursday, Shen said that Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) recently met with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi during a visit to New Delhi.
FINANCES: The KMT plan to halt pension cuts could bankrupt the pension fund years earlier, undermining intergenerational fairness, a Ministry of Civil Service report said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus’ proposal to amend the law to halt pension cuts for civil servants, teachers and military personnel could accelerate the depletion of the Public Service Pension Fund by four to five years, a Ministry of Civil Service report said. Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) on Aug. 14 said that the Act Governing Civil Servants’ Retirement, Discharge and Pensions (公務人員退休資遣撫卹法) should be amended, adding that changes could begin as soon as after Saturday’s recall and referendum. In a written report to the Legislative Yuan, the ministry said that the fund already faces a severe imbalance between revenue
RSS