Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Taipei mayoral candidate Sean Lien (連勝文) yesterday pledged to give first-time jobseekers would receive a monthly subsidy of NT$6,000 for a maximum of six months during their period of unemployment if he is elected.
Lien presented his policy platform on labor issues, which focuses on fresh graduates, students participating in industrial internships in university-industry partnerships and mentally or physically challenged people.
At the inaugural ceremony of a support association composed of labor groups, Lien said that he would emulate New Taipei City’s policy of providing new graduates with job-seeking allowances so that they could finance their needs while looking for a job.
Lien’s campaign office did not estimate the size of the budget needed for the project, saying that it would be subject to the number of applicants each year.
The New Taipei City Government spent NT$30 million (US$971,000) last year on the allowances, office spokesperson Liu Kuan-yin (劉冠吟) said.
Lien said that he would enhance the city’s employment network to assist fresh graduates in their job search, provide incentives for Taipei-based businesses to encourage the recruitment of physically or mentally challenged people, and improve working conditions for students under university-industry programs.
If he is elected, Lien said, his government would set up a consultation mechanism for trade unions to seek advice on legal, financial and accounting problems to enhance their capabilities.
Lien also vowed that he would further restrict the use of dispatch workers, who are vulnerable to exploitation and lack of protection under the existing legal system, while he set up standards of employment for the group.
Addressing about 1,000 supporters, Lien said he was confident that he would be much more capable of attracting new investments to the city than independent mayoral candidate Ko Wen-je (柯文哲).
“In order to protect workers’ interests, not only do we have to ensure their rights are safeguarded, we must also attract more investors to help businesses boost benefits,” Lien said.
Right-wing political scientist Laura Fernandez on Sunday won Costa Rica’s presidential election by a landslide, after promising to crack down on rising violence linked to the cocaine trade. Fernandez’s nearest rival, economist Alvaro Ramos, conceded defeat as results showed the ruling party far exceeding the threshold of 40 percent needed to avoid a runoff. With 94 percent of polling stations counted, the political heir of outgoing Costa Rican President Rodrigo Chaves had captured 48.3 percent of the vote compared with Ramos’ 33.4 percent, the Supreme Electoral Tribunal said. As soon as the first results were announced, members of Fernandez’s Sovereign People’s Party
EMERGING FIELDS: The Chinese president said that the two countries would explore cooperation in green technology, the digital economy and artificial intelligence Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) yesterday called for an “equal and orderly multipolar world” in the face of “unilateral bullying,” in an apparent jab at the US. Xi was speaking during talks in Beijing with Uruguayan President Yamandu Orsi, the first South American leader to visit China since US special forces captured then-Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro last month — an operation that Beijing condemned as a violation of sovereignty. Orsi follows a slew of leaders to have visited China seeking to boost ties with the world’s second-largest economy to hedge against US President Donald Trump’s increasingly unpredictable administration. “The international situation is fraught
MORE RESPONSIBILITY: Draftees would be expected to fight alongside professional soldiers, likely requiring the transformation of some training brigades into combat units The armed forces are to start incorporating new conscripts into combined arms brigades this year to enhance combat readiness, the Executive Yuan’s latest policy report said. The new policy would affect Taiwanese men entering the military for their compulsory service, which was extended to one year under reforms by then-president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) in 2022. The conscripts would be trained to operate machine guns, uncrewed aerial vehicles, anti-tank guided missile launchers and Stinger air defense systems, the report said, adding that the basic training would be lengthened to eight weeks. After basic training, conscripts would be sorted into infantry battalions that would take
GROWING AMBITIONS: The scale and tempo of the operations show that the Strait has become the core theater for China to expand its security interests, the report said Chinese military aircraft incursions around Taiwan have surged nearly 15-fold over the past five years, according to a report released yesterday by the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) Department of China Affairs. Sorties in the Taiwan Strait were previously irregular, totaling 380 in 2020, but have since evolved into routine operations, the report showed. “This demonstrates that the Taiwan Strait has become both the starting point and testing ground for Beijing’s expansionist ambitions,” it said. Driven by military expansionism, China is systematically pursuing actions aimed at altering the regional “status quo,” the department said, adding that Taiwan represents the most critical link in China’s
RSS