The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus yesterday slammed the government’s economic policies, saying they have contributed to the nation’s soaring unemployment rate.
DPP Legislator Wang Sing-nan (王幸男) told a press conference that since President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) took office last year, Taiwan’s investments in China have grown from NT$733.6 billion (US$22.38 billion) to NT$857.3 billion but domestic investment decreased from NT$470.7 billion to NT$246.2 billion.
Because of the decrease in domestic investment, companies and factories have been forced to downsize and reduce manpower, leading to unemployment, which hit a record high last month.
The Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) announced on Monday that unemployment rose 0.06 percentage points to 5.82 percent, or 633,000 people, last month, a new high since the survey began in 1978. Government officials attributed the record high rate to recent university graduates entering the labor market.
“President Ma used the wrong prescription to cure the economics and job market,” Wang said. “His economic policy of lifting restrictions on Taiwan’s investment in China has contributed to the rise in [Taiwan’s] unemployment.”
DPP Legislator Pan Meng-an (潘孟安) said that since Ma took office, unemployment, the suicide rate and the number of poor families had all hit new highs.
“Unemployment rose from 3.19 percent to 5.82 percent, or 633,000 people. If we add hidden unemployment numbers, the number of unemployed people would be more than 1 million,” he said.
When the government came up with measures to help young people find jobs, it neglected unemployed middle-aged and elderly people who are usually their family’s main bread-winner, he said, as he called on the government to come up with measures to help such people find work.
DPP spokesman Cheng Wen-tsang (鄭文燦) further accused the Ma administration of ignoring high unemployment by mulling plans to recognize Chinese academic degrees, open white-collar positions to Chinese applicants and sign an economic cooperation framework agreement with China, which Cheng said ran the risk of affecting at least 4 million jobs in Taiwan.
At a separate setting, Premier Liu Chao-shiuan (劉兆玄) said the government would watch the changes in the unemployment rate on a weekly basis to keep it within an acceptable range.
Liu said the Council for Economic Planning and Development had estimated that the unemployment rate would reach 6 percent, but would fall in September.
“The government’s strategies to address unemployment have demonstrated effectiveness, but we have to continue our ongoing efforts to bring the figure down further,” Liu said when asked for comment.
Liu said the government has confidence that the unemployment rate can be kept within an acceptable range as the Council of Labor Affairs (CLA) and the Ministry of Education (MOE) will soon launch job fairs to help college students find internships.
To help new college graduates find jobs, the government has implemented a temporary program to put graduates in contact with enterprises interested in providing one-year internship opportunities.
Meanwhile, Vice Premier Paul Chiu (邱正雄) said the CLA, the MOE and other agencies would co-host job-matching fairs from Wednesday to July 17 nationwide. The fairs are expected to help 13,000 graduates to find jobs.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), spokeswoman Yang Chih-yu (楊智伃) and Legislator Hsieh Lung-chieh (謝龍介) would be summoned by police for questioning for leading an illegal assembly on Thursday evening last week, Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) said today. The three KMT officials led an assembly outside the Taipei City Prosecutors’ Office, a restricted area where public assembly is not allowed, protesting the questioning of several KMT staff and searches of KMT headquarters and offices in a recall petition forgery case. Chu, Yang and Hsieh are all suspected of contravening the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法) by holding
PRAISE: Japanese visitor Takashi Kubota said the Taiwanese temple architecture images showcased in the AI Art Gallery were the most impressive displays he saw Taiwan does not have an official pavilion at the World Expo in Osaka, Japan, because of its diplomatic predicament, but the government-backed Tech World pavilion is drawing interest with its unique recreations of works by Taiwanese artists. The pavilion features an artificial intelligence (AI)-based art gallery showcasing works of famous Taiwanese artists from the Japanese colonial period using innovative technologies. Among its main simulated displays are Eastern gouache paintings by Chen Chin (陳進), Lin Yu-shan (林玉山) and Kuo Hsueh-hu (郭雪湖), who were the three young Taiwanese painters selected for the East Asian Painting exhibition in 1927. Gouache is a water-based
Taiwan would welcome the return of Honduras as a diplomatic ally if its next president decides to make such a move, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. “Of course, we would welcome Honduras if they want to restore diplomatic ties with Taiwan after their elections,” Lin said at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, when asked to comment on statements made by two of the three Honduran presidential candidates during the presidential campaign in the Central American country. Taiwan is paying close attention to the region as a whole in the wake of a
OFF-TARGET: More than 30,000 participants were expected to take part in the Games next month, but only 6,550 foreign and 19,400 Taiwanese athletes have registered Taipei city councilors yesterday blasted the organizers of next month’s World Masters Games over sudden timetable and venue changes, which they said have caused thousands of participants to back out of the international sporting event, among other organizational issues. They also cited visa delays and political interference by China as reasons many foreign athletes are requesting refunds for the event, to be held from May 17 to 30. Jointly organized by the Taipei and New Taipei City governments, the games have been rocked by numerous controversies since preparations began in 2020. Taipei City Councilor Lin Yen-feng (林延鳳) said yesterday that new measures by