China’s 31 incentives to attract Taiwanese businesses and professionals would only have a limited effect on Taiwan, National Development Council (NDC) Minister Chen Mei-ling (陳美伶) said yesterday, adding that the government will introduce better incentives to retain talented people.
The 31 incentives, announced by China’s Taiwan Affairs Office on Feb. 28, include tax cuts, investment capital and relaxed restrictions on certification for 134 professions, which sparked concerns at home over Taiwan losing its competitiveness.
Premier William Lai (賴清德) was originally planning to hold a cross-agency meeting yesterday to discuss the government’s response strategies, but the Executive Yuan on Sunday night canceled the meeting, saying more time is needed to collect information.
Photo: Wu Po-hsuan, Taipei Times
Chen yesterday attended a question-and-answer session at the legislature’s Economics Committee to report on the council’s policies.
The Executive Yuan has convened an ad hoc committee, presided by Vice Premier Shih Jun-ji (施俊吉), to collect response strategies from government agencies, Chen said.
The strategies have not been revealed because they have not been completed yet, she told the media before the session.
Many of the incentives offered by China are old policies and their effects on Taiwan would not be severe, she said.
Lai has proposed plans to remove investment barriers on local businesses, retain talented people and recruit foreign professionals since taking office last year, and many of the plans — although not specifically targeting the Chinese incentives — would be gradually carried out this year, she said.
It is inevitable that talented people would be courted by businesses, Chen said.
As far as Taiwan is concerned, the key is improving its leverage and boosting its self-confidence, she added.
“When we improve Taiwan’s investment environment, talented people would want to stay here and more investments would follow,” Chen said.
Although Chinese firms offer extraordinary salaries to attract talent from around the world, Taiwan can retain domestic professionals by raising their salaries, and introducing better incentives and work opportunities, she said.
In another legislative session yesterday, Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中) said that about 200 medical professionals are working in China, which has been long offering high salaries to attract them.
Talented people are competing in a global environment, while how to improve the salaries and working conditions of healthcare workers and show them due respect are key issues for the ministry, Chen Shih-chung said.
The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) yesterday said it had deployed patrol vessels to expel a China Coast Guard ship and a Chinese fishing boat near Pratas Island (Dongsha Island, 東沙群島) in the South China Sea. The China Coast Guard vessel was 28 nautical miles (52km) northeast of Pratas at 6:15am on Thursday, approaching the island’s restricted waters, which extend 24 nautical miles from its shoreline, the CGA’s Dongsha-Nansha Branch said in a statement. The Tainan, a 2,000-tonne cutter, was deployed by the CGA to shadow the Chinese ship, which left the area at 2:39pm on Friday, the statement said. At 6:31pm on Friday,
The Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy’s (PLAN) third aircraft carrier, the Fujian, would pose a steep challenge to Taiwan’s ability to defend itself against a full-scale invasion, a defense expert said yesterday. Institute of National Defense and Security Research analyst Chieh Chung (揭仲) made the comment hours after the PLAN confirmed the carrier recently passed through the Taiwan Strait to conduct “scientific research tests and training missions” in the South China Sea. China has two carriers in operation — the Liaoning and the Shandong — with the Fujian undergoing sea trials. Although the PLAN needs time to train the Fujian’s air wing and
STRIKE: Some travel agencies in Taiwan said that they were aware of the situation in South Korea, and that group tours to the country were proceeding as planned A planned strike by airport personnel in South Korea has not affected group tours to the country from Taiwan, travel agencies said yesterday. They added that they were closely monitoring the situation. Personnel at 15 airports, including Seoul’s Incheon and Gimpo airports, are to go on strike. They announced at a news conference on Tuesday that the strike would begin on Friday next week and continue until the Mid-Autumn Festival next month. Some travel agencies in Taiwan, including Cola Tour, Lion Travel, SET Tour and ezTravel, said that they were aware of the situation in South Korea, and that group
Taiwanese celebrities Hank Chen (陳漢典) and Lulu Huang (黃路梓茵) announced yesterday that they are planning to marry. Huang announced and posted photos of their engagement to her social media pages yesterday morning, joking that the pair were not just doing marketing for a new show, but “really getting married.” “We’ve decided to spend all of our future happy and hilarious moments together,” she wrote. The announcement, which was later confirmed by the talent agency they share, appeared to come as a surprise even to those around them, with veteran TV host Jacky Wu (吳宗憲) saying he was “totally taken aback” by the news. Huang,
RSS