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Short-term lecturers will no longer need to get work permits

The legislature yesterday approved an amendment to the Employment Service Act (就業服務法) that would relieve foreigners hired by Taiwanese universities as short-term lecturers or researchers of the burden of applying for work permits.

The amendment, proposed by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Ting Shou-chung (丁守中) and 27 other lawmakers, stipulates that foreigners employed by public or private universities in Taiwan to give lectures or conduct academic research for a maximum of six months will no longer be required to apply for a work permit.

The amendment is expected to give Taiwanese universities more flexibility to recruit renowned international talent as the existing law only extends the benefit to foreigners employed by government agencies or government-run research institutes as counselors or researchers or those married to Taiwanese citizens and who have obtained residency.

The new amendment is not connected to an individual’s residency permit.

Meanwhile, the legislature also passed a proposal to abolish the Statute Governing the Broadcasting Development Fund (BDF, 廣播電視發展基金條例).

The BDF Foundation had managed the fund until the Public Television Service (PTS) was founded in 2001. The foundation used the funds to produce public TV programs that were aired by three broadcasters: Taiwan Television (台視), China Television (中視) and the Chinese Television System (華視).

The foundation its activities once the PTS was established.

Asked for comment, KMT Legislator Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱), one of the legislators who initiated the proposal, compared the fund to an appendix, saying that it was no longer needed now that it had completed its mission.

Asked for comment on foundation executive director Connie Lin’s (林育卉) allegation that she was the real target of Hung’s proposal, Hung said Lin “thought too much of herself.”
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