The Executive Yuan on Thursday approved a draft amendment to a foreign talent act, in the hope that more friendly regulations would attract more foreign professionals to the country.
The draft amendment to the Act for the Recruitment and Employment of Foreign Professionals (外國專業人才延攬及僱用法), which was enacted in 2018, could “enable foreign professionals to come to Taiwan and stay here for good,” Executive Yuan spokesman Lo Ping-cheng (羅秉成) said at a weekly news briefing.
The proposed amendment would also allow “foreign special professionals” to enjoy greater tax concessions, the National Development Council said.
“Foreign special professional” refers to a foreign professional who possesses special expertise needed by Taiwan in science and technology, economics, education, culture, the arts, sports or other fields, as arbitrated by the relevant authorities.
The change would allow such professionals to enjoy extended tax deduction treatment from the current three years to five years, said Lin Chih-mei (林至美), director of the council’s Department of Human Resources Development.
During the five-year period, should their annual income hit NT$3 million (US$105,854), only half of the amount over that threshold would be included as gross income in the assessment of individual income tax liability, she said.
Professionals and their family members would be able to enroll immediately in Taiwan’s National Health Insurance system instead of having to wait for six months as other foreign nationals have to do, Lin said.
Moreover, if they wanted to apply for permanent residence, they would be able to do so after three years in the country instead of the current five years, provided they live in the country for at least 183 days each year.
The amendment still requires approval from the legislature, Lo said.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained