Legislators across party lines yesterday urged the government to take action against rising commodity prices as hikes in fuel and food costs eat into incomes and to step up efforts to boost the job market.
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Chen Ou-po (陳歐珀) said the starting salary of NT$22,000 (US$740) to NT$25,000 per month for new college graduates was not enough to meet higher living costs.
He suggested that the government review Taiwan’s temporary contract job system, which tends to keep pay levels and benefits low, and consider increasing unemployment benefits and employment subsidies.
People First Party Legislator Thomas Lee (李桐豪) said that a pay raise of 3 percent for average workers in January last year was not enough to offset the rising cost of living. The problem was particularly daunting for individuals in the 15 to 24 age bracket, which faces an unemployment rate of 12.7 percent, he said.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Chen Pi-han (陳碧涵) said the government should put more emphasis on helping younger workers, with 41.7 percent of the nation’s jobless population in the 20 to 29 age bracket. She said authorities should look into the compatibility of university-level courses and market demand.
KMT Legislator Pan Wei-kang (潘維剛) highlighted the nation’s increasing brain drain as other countries offer favorable terms to recruit skilled professionals. Singapore, for example, has friendly immigration policies while China uses high fees for research and accommodation subsidies, she said.
The lawmakers’ remarks came a day after state-run oil CPC Corp, Taiwan announced that the price for liquefied petroleum gas sold in cylinders would rise NT$2 per kilogram and that for liquefied natural gas piped to users would go up NT$0.5 per cubic meter, effective yesterday.
A 72-year-old man in Kaohsiung was sentenced to 40 days in jail after he was found having sex with a 67-year-old woman under a slide in a public park on Sunday afternoon. At 3pm on Sunday, a mother surnamed Liang (梁) was with her child at a neighborhood park when they found the man, surnamed Tsai (蔡), and woman, surnamed Huang (黃), underneath the slide. Liang took her child away from the scene, took photographs of the two and called the police, who arrived and arrested the couple. During questioning, Tsai told police that he had met Huang that day and offered to
LOOKING NORTH: The base would enhance the military’s awareness of activities in the Bashi Channel, which China Coast Guard ships have been frequenting, an expert said The Philippine Navy on Thursday last week inaugurated a forward operating base in the country’s northern most province of Batanes, which at 185km from Taiwan would be strategically important in a military conflict in the Taiwan Strait. The Philippine Daily Inquirer quoted Northern Luzon Command Commander Lieutenant General Fernyl Buca as saying that the base in Mahatao would bolster the country’s northern defenses and response capabilities. The base is also a response to the “irregular presence this month of armed” of China Coast Guard vessels frequenting the Bashi Channel in the Luzon Strait just south of Taiwan, the paper reported, citing a
BETTER SERVICE QUALITY: From Nov. 10, tickets with reserved seats would only be valid for the date, train and route specified on the ticket, THSRC said Starting on Nov. 10, high-speed rail passengers with reserved seats would be required to exchange their tickets to board an earlier train. Passengers with reserved seats on a specific train are currently allowed to board earlier trains on the same day and sit in non-reserved cars, but as this is happening increasingly often, and affecting quality of travel and ticket sales, Taiwan High-Speed Rail Corp (THSRC) announced that it would be canceling the policy on Nov. 10. It is one of several new measures launched by THSRC chairman Shih Che (史哲) to improve the quality of service, it said. The company also said
A magnitude 6 earthquake last night at 9:11pm struck off northeastern Yilan County, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The earthquake’s epicenter was located in waters between Toucheng Township (頭城) and Turtle Island (Gueishan Island, 龜山島), about 22.1km northeast of Yilan County Hall at a depth of 112km, CWA data showed. There were no immediate reports of damage. The earthquake’s intensity, which gauges the actual effects of a temblor, was highest in Yilan’s Dongshan (冬山) and Nanao (南澳) townships and Taipei’s Xinyi District (信義), where it measured 4 on Taiwan’s seven-tier intensity scale. It measured 3 in other areas of Yilan and Taipei, as
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