Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu’s (韓國瑜) policy advisory team yesterday proposed nine policies as part of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential candidate’s platform on new immigrants.
The proposals included lowering the number of years Chinese spouses must wait before they can obtain a national identification card from six to four; establishing a new-immigrant council under the Executive Yuan; building a national-level interpretation system; encouraging cooperation between multinational corporations and students who are children of new immigrants; developing new immigrants’ professional exam-related knowledge; providing an environment for learning Chinese and establishing a digitized learning platform; using the advantage of immigrants’ cultural diversity to nurture international talent; including pregnant new immigrants who are not covered by the national health insurance program in the program; and providing care services to immigrants arriving in Taiwan for the first time.
They proposals were announced by the team at a ceremony at the KMT’s headquarters in Taipei to mark the founding of Han’s national new-immigrant supporters’ club, which was also attended by KMT Chairman Wu Den-yih (吳敦義).
Wu said he hopes that everyone, regardless of their skin color, language or place of birth, can work together can create “one warm, big family.”
Over the past few years, many new foreign spouses have come to Taiwan, said former premier Simon Chang (張善政), the convener of Han’s policy advisory team.
There are now more than 550,000 new immigrants in Taiwan, he said.
There is a Council of Indigenous Peoples for the fewer than 570,000 Aborigines in Taiwan, he said, adding that a similar government agency should be created for new immigrants.
Meanwhile, Han attended the opening of his campaign headquarters in Penghu County.
Next year’s elections, on Jan. 11, “involve the survival or death of the Republic of China,” Han said, calling on voters to decide its future with their votes.
Additional reporting by Liu Yu-ching
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