Taiwan’s working-age population is expected to decline by 180,000 next year, Premier Mao Chi-kuo (毛治國) said yesterday, underscoring the need for a policy overhaul to meet new challenges.
“The seriousness of the demographic shrinking deserves serious attention,” Mao told a press conference after the weekly Cabinet meeting.
Citing research by the National Development Council, Mao said the nation’s working-age population — people aged 15 to 65 — is expected to reach its peak this year at 17 million.
Photo: CNA
Taiwan had a total population of 23.4 million as of last month.
“The council estimated that the working population would decrease at a rate of 180,000 per year starting next year, which would add up to 1.8 million people in 10 years,” Mao said, describing the pace of the decline as a “steep, parabolic” curve.
An aging society and a falling birthrate require new thinking in formulating policies, ranging from economic development to industrial structure, education, social welfare and childcare, Mao said.
In addition to a series of measures in place to construct a healthy environment to encourage more people to have children, the government needs to create a decent work environment and conditions to increase labor participation, as well as refine its immigration policy to increase the workforce, the premier said.
The council estimated that Taiwan’s population would peak at about 23.5 million or 23.6 million between 2019 and 2026.
The council said that Taiwan would become an aged society, in which people aged 65 or older account for at least 14 percent of the population, in 2018, and enter a super-aged society in 2025 when more than 20 percent of the population is composed of people aged 65 or above.
Taiwan became an aging society in 1993, when the demographic accounted for 7 percent of the population.
The CIA has a message for Chinese government officials worried about their place in Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) government: Come work with us. The agency released two Mandarin-language videos on social media on Thursday inviting disgruntled officials to contact the CIA. The recruitment videos posted on YouTube and X racked up more than 5 million views combined in their first day. The outreach comes as CIA Director John Ratcliffe has vowed to boost the agency’s use of intelligence from human sources and its focus on China, which has recently targeted US officials with its own espionage operations. The videos are “aimed at
STEADFAST FRIEND: The bills encourage increased Taiwan-US engagement and address China’s distortion of UN Resolution 2758 to isolate Taiwan internationally The Presidential Office yesterday thanked the US House of Representatives for unanimously passing two Taiwan-related bills highlighting its solid support for Taiwan’s democracy and global participation, and for deepening bilateral relations. One of the bills, the Taiwan Assurance Implementation Act, requires the US Department of State to periodically review its guidelines for engagement with Taiwan, and report to the US Congress on the guidelines and plans to lift self-imposed limitations on US-Taiwan engagement. The other bill is the Taiwan International Solidarity Act, which clarifies that UN Resolution 2758 does not address the issue of the representation of Taiwan or its people in
US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo on Friday expressed concern over the rate at which China is diversifying its military exercises, the Financial Times (FT) reported on Saturday. “The rates of change on the depth and breadth of their exercises is the one non-linear effect that I’ve seen in the last year that wakes me up at night or keeps me up at night,” Paparo was quoted by FT as saying while attending the annual Sedona Forum at the McCain Institute in Arizona. Paparo also expressed concern over the speed with which China was expanding its military. While the US
SHIFT: Taiwan’s better-than-expected first-quarter GDP and signs of weakness in the US have driven global capital back to emerging markets, the central bank head said The central bank yesterday blamed market speculation for the steep rise in the local currency, and urged exporters and financial institutions to stay calm and stop panic sell-offs to avoid hurting their own profitability. The nation’s top monetary policymaker said that it would step in, if necessary, to maintain order and stability in the foreign exchange market. The remarks came as the NT dollar yesterday closed up NT$0.919 to NT$30.145 against the US dollar in Taipei trading, after rising as high as NT$29.59 in intraday trading. The local currency has surged 5.85 percent against the greenback over the past two sessions, central
RSS