■ Labor
Police give foreigner count
A total of 512,980 foreigners were legally staying or residing in the country at the end of last month, according to a report released by the National Police Admin-istration (NPA) over the weekend. Among them, 437,140 possessed resident visas, while 73,525 had entered the country on short-term visas for a maximum six-month stay. The remaining 2,315 had diplomatic visas or courtesy visas. Taoyuan County boasted the largest foreign population of 75,997, followed by Taipei County with 56,757 and Taipei City with 51,258. By occupation, laborers imported with the approval of the Council of Labor Affairs accounted for 276,039, with Thailand, the Philippines and Vietnam as the top three sources. Teachers came in second with 6,152; followed by businesspeople, 4,095; engineers, 3,377 and missionaries, 1,691. Of the 73,525 foreigners who entered the country on short-term visas, 22,307 had overstayed their visas by the end of last month. Of those on short-term visas, 20,941 were Americans and 15,268 were Japanese.
■ Labor
Minimum wage unchanged
Minimum monthly salary for foreign white-collar workers doing professional and highly skilled jobs in this country is NT$47,971, according to the latest Council of Labor Affairs (CLA) bulletin. The figure is unchanged from the previous bulletin, the council said. The latest bulletin also shows that research assistants working for special projects under the auspices of National Science Council must be paid at least NT$34,000 a month. If and when the monthly pay is adjusted by between NT$3,000 and NT$5,000, the council said it will issue a new bulletin.
■ Tourism
Promotion efforts paying off
Some 1.6 million tourists arrived in the first six months of this year, with over 3.2 million person-visits for the entire year a real possibility, Minister of Transportation and Communications Lin Ling-san (林陵三) said yesterday. Noting that promoting tourism has been one of the major policies of the Executive Yuan over the past several years, Lin said that the efforts have begun to bear fruit, with the number of foreign tourists increasing year on year. The efforts, Lin said, have included putting more advertisements about tourist attractions in various major media outlets, including CNN and the Discovery channel. Lin, who heads the Cabinet's Tourism Development and Promotion Committee, said that there are 13 major tourist attractions nationwide.
■ Tourism
Official urges tourism talks
The government welcomes Chinese tourists wishing to visit Taiwan, but reciprocal responsibilities on the part of both sides must not be avoided, Transportation and Communications Minister Lin Ling-san (林陵三) said yesterday in an interview. Lin said that the government insists on holding talks to clarify the responsibilities of each side of the Taiwan Strait before allowing the opening, in order to break the current deadlock and prevent negative consequences. According to Lin, measures to prevent Chinese tourists from staying illegally in Taiwan -- as well as penalties for tourist agents involved in such cases -- must be fully discussed prior to a full opening to Chinese tourists. Lin urged China to conduct the negotiations with Taiwan on a reciprocal basis as soon as possible. Since 2002, only Chinese people living outside China or those entering from a third country can enter Taiwan for sightseeing.
Yangmingshan National Park authorities yesterday urged visitors to respect public spaces and obey the law after a couple was caught on a camera livestream having sex at the park’s Qingtiangang (擎天崗) earlier in the day. The Shilin Police Precinct in Taipei said it has identified a suspect and his vehicle registration number, and would summon him for questioning. The case would be handled in accordance with public indecency charges, it added. The couple entered the park at about 11pm on Thursday and began fooling around by 1am yesterday, the police said, adding that the two were unaware of the park’s all-day live
Yangmingshan National Park’s Qingtiangang (擎天崗) nature area has gone viral after a park livestream camera observed a couple in the throes of intimate congress, which was broadcast live on YouTube, drawing large late-night crowds and sparking a backlash over noise, bright lights and disruption to wildlife habitat. The area’s livestream footage appeared to show a couple engaging in sexual activity on a picnic table in the park on Friday last week, with the uncensored footage streamed publicly online. The footage quickly spread across social media, prompting a tide of visitors to travel to the site to “check in” and recreate the
Fast food chain McDonald's is to raise prices by up to NT$5 on some products at its restaurants across Taiwan, starting on Wednesday next week, the company announced today. The prices of all extra value meals and sharing boxes are to increase by NT$5, while breakfast combos and creamy corn soup would go up by NT$3, the company said in a statement. The price of the main items of those meals, if ordered individually, would remain the same. Meanwhile, the price of a medium-sized lemon iced tea and hot cappuccino would rise by NT$3, extra dipping sauces for chicken nuggets would go up
Minister of Digital Affairs Lin Yi-ching (林宜敬) yesterday cited regulatory issues and national security concerns as an expert said that Taiwan is among the few Asian regions without Starlink. Lin made the remarks on Facebook after funP Innovation Group chief executive officer Nathan Chiu (邱繼弘) on Friday said Taiwan and four other countries in Asia — China, North Korea, Afghanistan and Syria — have no access to Starlink. Starlink has become available in 166 countries worldwide, including Ukraine, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam, in the six years since it became commercial, he said. While China and North Korea block Starlink, Syria is not
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