A raft of new programs and government policies that are expected to bring benefits to society at large will take effect today.
Among them is a child welfare program sponsored by the Ministry of the Interior, which will allow Taiwanese families with an annual household income of less than NT$1.5 million (US$50,000) and families to receive a monthly stipend of NT$3,000 for each child under 2 years of age.
Families in all income brackets will also be eligible to receive the stipend after the birth of a third child.
In Taipei City, a campaign to boost the city’s birth rate will also be launched starting today. Couples who have lived in the city for more than a year will be offered an incentive of NT$20,000 for each newborn child, once at least one of the parents has recognized household registration in the city.
The campaign also allows a monthly subsidy of NT$2,500 to be granted to families for children under the age of five years, providing the parents are registered Taipei City residents who have lived in the city for more than a year and are in an income tax bracket that places them in the bottom 20 percent of income earners.
Other policy changes and initiatives that will also take effect today include the decision to increase the country’s monthly minimum wage from NT$17,280 to NT$17,880 and the hourly minimum wage from NT$95 to NT$98.
The EU visa waiver privilege for Taiwanese passport holders traveling to the Schengen Area and three EU member states will also take effect on Jan. 11.
There are 77 incidents of Taiwanese travelers going missing in China between January last year and last month, the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) said. More than 40 remain unreachable, SEF Secretary-General Luo Wen-jia (羅文嘉) said on Friday. Most of the reachable people in the more than 30 other incidents were allegedly involved in fraud, while some had disappeared for personal reasons, Luo said. One of these people is Kuo Yu-hsuan (郭宇軒), a 22-year-old Taiwanese man from Kaohsiung who went missing while visiting China in August. China’s Taiwan Affairs Office last month said in a news statement that he was under investigation
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Celebrations marking Double Ten National Day are to begin in Taipei today before culminating in a fireworks display in Yunlin County on the night of Thursday next week. To start the celebrations, a concert is to be held at the Taipei Dome at 4pm today, featuring a lineup of award-winning singers, including Jody Chiang (江蕙), Samingad (紀曉君) and Huang Fei (黃妃), Taipei tourism bureau official Chueh Yu-ling (闕玉玲) told a news conference yesterday. School choirs, including the Pqwasan na Taoshan Choir and Hngzyang na Matui & Nahuy Children’s Choir, and the Ministry of National Defense Symphony Orchestra, flag presentation unit and choirs,
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