The country’s unemployment situation will not worsen in the coming months, as the domestic economy is showing signs of regaining stability, Vice Premier Paul Chiu (邱正雄) said yesterday.
Over the past months the economic downturn seemed to be easing and moving toward stability, Chiu said, but added that more time was needed to judge whether an economic recovery was really occurring.
As Taiwan’s export value last month increased by more than US$200 million over the January figure, Chiu said exports were expected to continue warming in the future. He said, however, that the global economic situation would continue to have a heavy influence on the country’s export business.
If Taiwan’s exports continue to grow, demand for workers will increase, he said, saying that the Executive Yuan in cooperation with the private sector would create 73,000 jobs this year.
To help job seekers find employment, the Executive Yuan will organize four employment fairs around the country on April 11 and April 18, he said.
“The government hopes to provide 6,000 jobs at each of the four fairs, which should help bring down unemployment,” he said.
Chiu urged the legislature to pass the NT$150.6 billion (US$4.34 billion) special budget by April 10 for the government to expand public works this year as part of the four-year public construction program, which carries a NT$500 billion price tag.
The government had said that the four-year special budget along with other short-term job enhancement programs would create a total of 341,000 jobs in four years, while the number of jobs created this year would be about 200,000.
The Ministry of Education (MOE) is to launch a new program to encourage international students to stay in Taiwan and explore job opportunities here after graduation, Deputy Minister of Education Yeh Ping-cheng (葉丙成) said on Friday. The government would provide full scholarships for international students to further their studies for two years in Taiwan, so those who want to pursue a master’s degree can consider applying for the program, he said. The fields included are science, technology, engineering, mathematics, semiconductors and finance, Yeh added. The program, called “Intense 2+2,” would also assist international students who completed the two years of further studies in
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
Taiwan will now have four additional national holidays after the Legislative Yuan passed an amendment today, which also made Labor Day a national holiday for all sectors. The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) used their majority in the Legislative Yuan to pass the amendment to the Act on Implementing Memorial Days and State Holidays (紀念日及節日實施辦法), which the parties jointly proposed, in its third and final reading today. The legislature passed the bill to amend the act, which is currently enforced administratively, raising it to the legal level. The new legislation recognizes Confucius’ birthday on Sept. 28, the
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
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