Premier Sean Chen yesterday said that the possibility of an influx of foreign workers crowding out Aborigines was an issue that “demanded attention.”
Fielding questions from Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Jeng Tian-tsair (鄭天財), an Amis Aborigine, during a question-and-answer session in the legislature, Chen said the Cabinet would discuss how it can address the problem properly.
Jeng raised concern over the Cabinet’s plan to relax restrictions on the recruitment of foreign workers to attract new investors and encourage China-based Taiwanese businesspeople to relocate their businesses to the country.
Photo: Wang Yi-sung, Taipei Times
The government has estimated that the measures, which will take effect at the end of this year, for new investors who apply for investments in the next two years, would attract NT$200 billion (US$6.83billion) in investments, bringing in 80,000 foreign workers and creating 120,000 job opportunities for Taiwanese.
Jeng said that the policy would negatively affect Aboriginal employment.
“Between 2000 and the end of last year, there was an increase of 7,000 in the number of migrant workers. In the first eight months of the year, Taiwan recruited 12,000 extra workers from foreign countries. Now we will bring in an additional 80,000 foreign workers?” Jeng asked.
The incentives for investors would hit hard and fast on Aborigines, whose unemployment rate is already high, because about 30 percent of the Aborigines who are employed work either in the manufacturing or construction sectors, Jeng said.
Chen agreed with Jeng’s suggestion that companies may be required to provide employment opportunities for Aborigines to qualify for the investment incentives.
Separately, Independent Legislator May Chin (高金素梅) of the Atayal, KMT Legislator Kung Wen-chi (孔文吉) of the Sediq, and KMT Legislator Chien Tung-ming (簡東明) of the Paiwan urged Chen to speed up the drafting of an autonomy bill for Aborigines.
Chen said he has gone over the drafted bill initiated by the Council of Indigenous Peoples article by article, while talks between the council and local governments have been ongoing to review the feasibility of tribal self-governance projects as stipulated in the bill to make sure that the ideals of Aboriginal self-government can be realized.
“No one [in the Cabinet] is opposed to the idea of Aboriginal self-governance. We have been looking at how to implement the ideal idea,” Chen said.
Environmental groups yesterday filed an appeal with the Executive Yuan, seeking to revoke the environmental impact assessment (EIA) conditionally approved in February for the Hsieh-ho Power Plant’s planned fourth liquefied natural gas (LNG) receiving station off the coast of Keelung. The appeal was filed jointly by the Protect Waimushan Seashore Action Group, the Wild at Heart Legal Defense Association and the Keelung City Taiwan Head Cultural Association, which together held a news conference outside the Executive Yuan in Taipei. Explaining the reasons for the appeal, Wang Hsing-chih (王醒之) of the Protect Waimushan Seashore Action Group said that the EIA failed to address
Taipei on Thursday held urban resilience air raid drills, with residents in one of the exercises’ three “key verification zones” reporting little to no difference compared with previous years, despite government pledges of stricter enforcement. Formerly known as the Wanan exercise, the air raid drills, which concluded yesterday, are now part of the “Urban Resilience Exercise,” which also incorporates the Minan disaster prevention and rescue exercise. In Taipei, the designated key verification zones — where the government said more stringent measures would be enforced — were Songshan (松山), Zhongshan (中山) and Zhongzheng (中正) districts. Air raid sirens sounded at 1:30pm, signaling the
The number of people who reported a same-sex spouse on their income tax increased 1.5-fold from 2020 to 2023, while the overall proportion of taxpayers reporting a spouse decreased by 4.4 percent from 2014 to 2023, Ministry of Finance data showed yesterday. The number of people reporting a spouse on their income tax trended upward from 2014 to 2019, the Department of Statistics said. However, the number decreased in 2020 and 2021, likely due to a drop in marriages during the COVID-19 pandemic and the income of some households falling below the taxable threshold, it said. The number of spousal tax filings rebounded
Labor rights groups yesterday called on the Ministry of Labor to protect migrant workers in Taiwan’s fishing industry, days after CNN reported alleged far-ranging abuses in the sector, including deaths and forced work. The ministry must enforce domestic labor protection laws on Taiwan-owned deep-sea fishing vessels, the Coalition for Human Rights for Migrant Fishers told a news conference outside the ministry in Taipei after presenting a petition to officials. CNN on Sunday reported that Taiwanese seafood giant FCF Co, the owners of the US-based Bumble Bee Foods, committed human rights abuses against migrant fishers, citing Indonesian migrant fishers. The alleged abuses included denying