Taiwan and South Korea have increased the annual quota for their reciprocal working holiday program to 600 people from each side, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday.
“In light of the growing demand for working holiday opportunities among young people from Taiwan and South Korea, we have reached an agreement to raise the cap to 600 people per year starting Jan. 1, in an effort to strengthen bilateral exchanges,” said Shih Puo-suz (石柏士), deputy director-general on home assignment of the ministry’s Department of East Asian and Pacific Affairs.
Shih said the number of working holiday visa applicants has been steadily increased since November 2010, when Taipei and Seoul inked a memorandum of understanding to launch a joint youth working holiday program.
The current quota of 400 applicants from each country has been met this year, Shih said.
Shih said the program is available to Taiwanese and South Korean nationals aged 18 to 30, who can apply for a one-year working holiday multiple-entry visa that allows them to participate in short-term employment or internships in each other’s country to supplement their travel expenses.
Meanwhile, Association of East Asian Relations Secretary-General Chang Jen-joe (張仁久) told the press conference that progress has been made on negotiations between Taiwan and Japan on a double taxation avoidance agreement.
“Talks of inking such an agreement have been under way since the signing of the 2011 Arrangement for the Mutual Cooperation on the Liberalization, Promotion and Protection of Investment,” Chang said.
The negotiations have entered their final stage, Chang said, adding that the ministry would make public relevant details after they have been finalized.
As for the 40th Taiwan-Japan Trade and Economic Meeting, which is scheduled to be held on Nov. 25 and 26 in Tokyo, Chang said that both sides aim to bolster communication on trade issues and promote bilateral exchanges.
Chang added that the ministry is compiling a list of topics to be discussed at the meeting, an annual platform held by Taipei and Tokyo.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
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Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching