The government’s New Southbound Policy last year boosted tourism and trade links with the countries covered by the policy, while education programs stagnated, statistics published by the Executive Yuan’s Office of Trade Negotiations showed.
People visiting Taiwan from the 18 nations covered by the policy last year rose by 2.7 million people, or 6.8 percent, from the previous year, the figures showed.
They accounted for 23 percent of all foreign visitors to Taiwan, the office said.
Taiwanese visiting the policy nations rose 15.1 percent annually to 3.2 million, accounting for 18.8 percent of all Taiwanese traveling abroad, it said.
Taiwan also rose to third place in the top 10 list of non-Organization of Islamic Cooperation destinations, up from fifth in 2018, the office said, citing the 2019 Global Muslim Travel Index published by CrescentRating and Mastercard.
Taiwan’s exports to policy nations last year totaled US$63.1 billion, while imports were US$48.8 billion, the office said.
The government authorized 267 investment applications totaling US$2.79 billion in the countries covered by the policy and authorized 645 applications by companies from the countries to invest in Taiwan, for a total US$1.09 billion, the office said.
Taiwanese construction projects under the policy focus on power plants, petrochemical industries, electronic toll collection systems, mass-rapid transit systems, and environmental and water resource projects, it said.
As of December last year, Taiwanese companies had received permission to start 41 construction projects valued at NT$26.4 billion (US$871.2 million at the current exchange rate), the office said.
In education, 53,099 students came to Taiwan from policy countries, while 21,718 Taiwanese students went to countries covered by the policy to study, it said.
The number of foreign students enrolled in the normal program specifically created for the policy last year totaled 1,346 people, falling from 4,004 in 2018, the office said.
The number of students enrolled in the mid-high-tier professional skill program also fell from 87 in 2018 to 30 last year, it said.
Last year, 844 foreign students were enrolled in the youth vocational training course in 15 educational institutes, and 2,115 students were enrolled in the compatriots’ vocational classes at high schools and universities, the office said.
Taiwanese can file complaints with the Tourism Administration to report travel agencies if their activities caused termination of a person’s citizenship, Mainland Affairs Council Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday, after a podcaster highlighted a case in which a person’s citizenship was canceled for receiving a single-use Chinese passport to enter Russia. The council is aware of incidents in which people who signed up through Chinese travel agencies for tours of Russia were told they could obtain Russian visas and fast-track border clearance, Chiu told reporters on the sidelines of an event in Taipei. However, the travel agencies actually applied
Japanese footwear brand Onitsuka Tiger today issued a public apology and said it has suspended an employee amid allegations that the staff member discriminated against a Vietnamese customer at its Taipei 101 store. Posting on the social media platform Threads yesterday, a user said that an employee at the store said that “those shoes are very expensive” when her friend, who is a migrant worker from Vietnam, asked for assistance. The employee then ignored her until she asked again, to which she replied: "We don't have a size 37." The post had amassed nearly 26,000 likes and 916 comments as of this
New measures aimed at making Taiwan more attractive to foreign professionals came into effect this month, the National Development Council said yesterday. Among the changes, international students at Taiwanese universities would be able to work in Taiwan without a work permit in the two years after they graduate, explainer materials provided by the council said. In addition, foreign nationals who graduated from one of the world’s top 200 universities within the past five years can also apply for a two-year open work permit. Previously, those graduates would have needed to apply for a work permit using point-based criteria or have a Taiwanese company
The Shilin District Prosecutors’ Office yesterday indicted two Taiwanese and issued a wanted notice for Pete Liu (劉作虎), founder of Shenzhen-based smartphone manufacturer OnePlus Technology Co (萬普拉斯科技), for allegedly contravening 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) by poaching 70 engineers in Taiwan. Liu allegedly traveled to Taiwan at the end of 2014 and met with a Taiwanese man surnamed Lin (林) to discuss establishing a mobile software research and development (R&D) team in Taiwan, prosecutors said. Without approval from the government, Lin, following Liu’s instructions, recruited more than 70 software
RSS