Faced with a shrinking working population caused by the declining birthrate, the government is to overhaul existing immigration laws, National Development Council (NDC) Minister Chen Mei-ling (陳美伶) said on Thursday.
The changes would be made to meet the needs of local industry, a departure from regulations which focus on national security, as Taiwan looks for ways to deal with the huge challenges posed by an aging society and the effect of having too few professionals, Chen said.
Taiwan’s working population began to shrink last year after peaking at 17.37 million in 2015, she said, adding that it is expected to fall to 15.16 million in 2030.
The immigration laws need to be revamped to help Taiwan attract skilled workers from overseas, Chen said.
Taiwan should build an environment that is friendly to foreigners, both white and blue-collar workers, to meet the needs of an industry already plagued by a labor shortage, she said.
Statistics compiled by the Ministry of the Interior show that the fertility rate, which refers to the average number of children each woman is expected to have in her lifetime, is 1.17 in Taiwan, one of the lowest in the world.
A total of 208,000 Taiwanese babies were born last year, but that number is likely to dip under 200,000 this year, she said.
Since assuming office in September, Premier William Lai (賴清德) has raised the issue several times.
Lai on Wednesday vowed to take measures to help boost Taiwan’s fertility rate to 1.4 by 2030 at a year-end news conference.
On Dec. 21, Lai called a third special meeting on immigration policy and talent cultivation, asking the NDC to explore new ways of attracting foreign talent and draft new immigration regulations to promote that objective.
TARIFF TRADE-OFF: Machinery exports to China dropped after Beijing ended its tariff reductions in June, while potential new tariffs fueled ‘front-loaded’ orders to the US The nation’s machinery exports to the US amounted to US$7.19 billion last year, surpassing the US$6.86 billion to China to become the largest export destination for the local machinery industry, the Taiwan Association of Machinery Industry (TAMI, 台灣機械公會) said in a report on Jan. 10. It came as some manufacturers brought forward or “front-loaded” US-bound shipments as required by customers ahead of potential tariffs imposed by the new US administration, the association said. During his campaign, US president-elect Donald Trump threatened tariffs of as high as 60 percent on Chinese goods and 10 percent to 20 percent on imports from other countries.
Taiwanese manufacturers have a chance to play a key role in the humanoid robot supply chain, Tongtai Machine and Tool Co (東台精機) chairman Yen Jui-hsiung (嚴瑞雄) said yesterday. That is because Taiwanese companies are capable of making key parts needed for humanoid robots to move, such as harmonic drives and planetary gearboxes, Yen said. This ability to produce these key elements could help Taiwanese manufacturers “become part of the US supply chain,” he added. Yen made the remarks a day after Nvidia Corp cofounder and chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said his company and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) are jointly
United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電) expects its addressable market to grow by a low single-digit percentage this year, lower than the overall foundry industry’s 15 percent expansion and the global semiconductor industry’s 10 percent growth, the contract chipmaker said yesterday after reporting the worst profit in four-and-a-half years in the fourth quarter of last year. Growth would be fueled by demand for artificial intelligence (AI) servers, a moderate recovery in consumer electronics and an increase in semiconductor content, UMC said. “UMC’s goal is to outgrow our addressable market while maintaining our structural profitability,” UMC copresident Jason Wang (王石) told an online earnings
MARKET SHIFTS: Exports to the US soared more than 120 percent to almost one quarter, while ASEAN has steadily increased to 18.5 percent on rising tech sales The proportion of Taiwan’s exports directed to China, including Hong Kong, declined by more than 12 percentage points last year compared with its peak in 2020, the Ministry of Finance said on Thursday last week. The decrease reflects the ongoing restructuring of global supply chains, driven by escalating trade tensions between Beijing and Washington. Data compiled by the ministry showed China and Hong Kong accounted for 31.7 percent of Taiwan’s total outbound sales last year, a drop of 12.2 percentage points from a high of 43.9 percent in 2020. In addition to increasing trade conflicts between China and the US, the ministry said
RSS