Professionals and businesspeople joined Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers at a legislative hearing yesterday to demand changes to regulations that they said make Taiwan unattractive to foreigners, white-collar workers and business owners.
DPP legislators Chung Chia-pin (鍾佳濱) and Yu Wan-ju (余宛如) collaborated with the Taiwan Thinktank to organize the hearing.
Yu said there are more than 662,000 foreign nationals holding valid work permits in Taiwan, and about 550,000 of these are caregivers or blue-collar workers.
About 17,000 people, or 2.58 percent, are foreign white-collar workers in the business, technical, engineering, media or professional sectors, teachers, researchers or missionaries.
Chung said Taiwan has to meet the challenges of globalization and the nation has a shortage of skilled workers, and it is time offer incentives and improved conditions to attract more foreign professionals.
“We have to face these problems now. There are foreign students who are studying here, and they want to stay and work in Taiwan. We have foreign professionals who are attracted by the friendly people and the lifestyle, but they get tired of the bureaucratic red tape, so they end up leaving,” he said.
Elias Ek, from Sweden, attended the hearing to talk about the problems he faced as a foreign worker. Living in Taipei for 17 years and married to a Taiwanese woman, Ek said that he is the founder and general manager of Enspyre, a B2B telemarketing firm in Taiwan.
Ek said he faces difficulty in his daily life and conducting business which Taiwanese do not, such as problems dealing with banks and applying for credit cards, and not being able to use e-commerce or make online payments because his ID number is different from those of Taiwanese.
“I went to a telecom service office to apply for a second mobile phone for a family member, but was told I cannot, because as a foreigner, government regulations mean I can only have one phone number,” he said.
“Because of the different ID number for foreigners, I am constantly reminded that I am a foreigner. My hope is to end the different treatment for people like me who have a family in Taiwan. Instead of a foreigner, I would like to be known as a Taiwanese citizen of Swedish descent,” he said.
Chung said he and DPP lawmakers would work on a labor bill and other laws which would lift the restrictions and relax rules on minimum salary, residency period requirements and professional work experience for foreign professionals.
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
Former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) departed for Europe on Friday night, with planned stops in Lithuania and Denmark. Tsai arrived at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport on Friday night, but did not speak to reporters before departing. Tsai wrote on social media later that the purpose of the trip was to reaffirm the commitment of Taiwanese to working with democratic allies to promote regional security and stability, upholding freedom and democracy, and defending their homeland. She also expressed hope that through joint efforts, Taiwan and Europe would continue to be partners building up economic resilience on the global stage. The former president was to first
Former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) on Monday called for greater cooperation between Taiwan, Lithuania and the EU to counter threats to information security, including attacks on undersea cables and other critical infrastructure. In a speech at Vilnius University in the Lithuanian capital, Tsai highlighted recent incidents in which vital undersea cables — essential for cross-border data transmission — were severed in the Taiwan Strait and the Baltic Sea over the past year. Taiwanese authorities suspect Chinese sabotage in the incidents near Taiwan’s waters, while EU leaders have said Russia is the likely culprit behind similar breaches in the Baltic. “Taiwan and our European
The Taipei District Court sentenced babysitters Liu Tsai-hsuan (劉彩萱) and Liu Jou-lin (劉若琳) to life and 18 years in prison respectively today for causing the death of a one-year-old boy in December 2023. The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said that Liu Tsai-hsuan was entrusted with the care of a one-year-old boy, nicknamed Kai Kai (剴剴), in August 2023 by the Child Welfare League Foundation. From Sept. 1 to Dec. 23 that year, she and her sister Liu Jou-lin allegedly committed acts of abuse against the boy, who was rushed to the hospital with severe injuries on Dec. 24, 2023, but did not
RSS