A senior Cabinet official said yesterday that the government can create an additional 3,966 short-term jobs by year’s end and an additional 12,800 short-term jobs next year.
Minister Without Portfolio Tsai Hsun-hsiung (蔡勳雄) made the announcement at a press conference after a Cabinet meeting on unemployment convened by Premier Liu Chao-shiuan (劉兆玄).
The announcement came one week after President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said he wanted to see the Executive Yuan expand its job-creation plans.
The job opportunities to be created by government agencies will bring the number of short-term jobs created by a job-boosting measure this year from 46,000 to about 50,000 and the number of short-term jobs created by that measure from 56,000 to 69,000, Tsai said.
With the expansion of the measure, the Ministry of Education will create 4,000 jobs for out-of-work teachers to teach in after-school programs in elementary schools and junior high schools. The National Youth Commission will help 1,950 young adults start their own businesses, and the National Science Council will create 2,000 positions for post-doctoral researchers.
The measures have drawn controversy as the short-term job recipients include young people who are to be conscripted by the Ministry of National Defense and those who are to join substitute military services managed by the Ministry of the Interior.
When asked whether the job-boosting measure would help middle-aged people and seniors who have greater difficulty finding jobs, Vice Chairman of the Council for Economic Planning and Development San Gee (單驥) said the council would continue to review the program to ensure that it serves the special needs of these people.
Aside from the measure, the government said that it expects to create some 200,000 job opportunities through a four-year job creation plan and another 200,000 job opportunities through a four-year NT$ 500 billion project to increase public construction works.
Taiwan yesterday condemned the recent increase in Chinese coast guard-escorted fishing vessels operating illegally in waters around the Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島) in the South China Sea. Unusually large groupings of Chinese fishing vessels began to appear around the islands on Feb. 15, when at least six motherships and 29 smaller boats were sighted, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said in a news release. While CGA vessels were dispatched to expel the Chinese boats, Chinese coast guard ships trespassed into Taiwan’s restricted waters and unsuccessfully attempted to interfere, the CGA said. Due to the provocation, the CGA initiated an operation to increase
CHANGING LANDSCAPE: Many of the part-time programs for educators were no longer needed, as many teachers obtain a graduate degree before joining the workforce, experts said Taiwanese universities this year canceled 86 programs, Ministry of Education data showed, with educators attributing the closures to the nation’s low birthrate as well as shifting trends. Fifty-three of the shuttered programs were part-time postgraduate degree programs, about 62 percent of the total, the most in the past five years, the data showed. National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU) discontinued the most part-time master’s programs, at 16: chemistry, life science, earth science, physics, fine arts, music, special education, health promotion and health education, educational psychology and counseling, education, design, Chinese as a second language, library and information sciences, mechatronics engineering, history, physical education
The Chinese military has boosted its capability to fight at a high tempo using the element of surprise and new technology, the Ministry of National Defense said in the Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) published on Monday last week. The ministry highlighted Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) developments showing significant changes in Beijing’s strategy for war on Taiwan. The PLA has made significant headway in building capabilities for all-weather, multi-domain intelligence, surveillance, operational control and a joint air-sea blockade against Taiwan’s lines of communication, it said. The PLA has also improved its capabilities in direct amphibious assault operations aimed at seizing strategically important beaches,
‘MALIGN PURPOSE’: Governments around the world conduct espionage operations, but China’s is different, as its ultimate goal is annexation, a think tank head said Taiwan is facing a growing existential threat from its own people spying for China, experts said, as the government seeks to toughen measures to stop Beijing’s infiltration efforts and deter Taiwanese turncoats. While Beijing and Taipei have been spying on each other for years, experts said that espionage posed a bigger threat to Taiwan due to the risk of a Chinese attack. Taiwan’s intelligence agency said China used “diverse channels and tactics” to infiltrate the nation’s military, government agencies and pro-China organizations. The main targets were retired and active members of the military, persuaded by money, blackmail or pro-China ideology to steal
RSS