Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) presidential candidate Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) yesterday released his women's policy, promising to create jobs for 1 million women in eight years if elected.
Dubbed the "five guarantees," Hsieh promised to establish a gender equality committee under the Executive Yuan, increase government budget earmarked for related purposes and fully protect women's rights.
He also said he would create jobs for 1 million women in eight years.
Statistics show that about 4.1 million women were employed in 2005, an increase of 84,000 from the previous year. The number jumped to 4.3 million in 2006 and 4.4 million last year.
If 120,000 more women can get a job each year, a total of 960,000 women would enter the job market in eight years, he said.
Third, he said the government would provide NT$5 billion in low-interest, no-guarantor required loans to women who want to start their own business.
Fourth, the government would provide free computer learning courses to 100,000 women each year. Beginning last year, nonprofit-making groups can apply for government funding to provide computer training courses to women. The funding has benefited 10,000 women and is expected to benefit 20,000 more women this year.
Finally, the government would employ professional social workers to ensure individual safety of women and children.
The DPP candidate also signed on an agreement that offers "six promises" to the country's women.
He promised to hire more female officials in the government, ensure the safety of women, protect and respect female caretakers, prevent women from cultural discrimination, encourage the children of intermarriages to learn the language of their foreign parent and provide quality child-care facilities.
Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮), who attended the event as a special guest, said Hsieh could also work on correcting the misperception that women "are weak."
An essay competition jointly organized by a local writing society and a publisher affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) might have contravened the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said on Thursday. “In this case, the partner organization is clearly an agency under the CCP’s Fujian Provincial Committee,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said at a news briefing in Taipei. “It also involves bringing Taiwanese students to China with all-expenses-paid arrangements to attend award ceremonies and camps,” Liang said. Those two “characteristics” are typically sufficient
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas