Some parents in Taipei are to receive an additional subsidy of NT$5,000 at the birth of their second and third child, the Taipei City Government said on Wednesday, adding that it hoped the measure would increase the city’s dwindling population.
Starting yesterday, the measure raises the one-time subsidy for a second child to NT$25,000 and to NT$30,000 for a third Child, the Taipei Department of Civil Affairs said.
The amendment was passed on Wednesday as part of an effort to reverse the population decline in Taipei and create a symbiotic living circle with New Taipei City and Keelung, the department said.
Photo: Tsai Shu-yuan, Taipei Times
Taipei residents who have moved to the capital from New Taipei City or Keelung after living there for at least 10 months would be eligible to receive the subsidies, it said.
In addition to the increased one-time subsidies, Taipei said it is also increasing its monthly child-rearing benefits.
Starting in August, the benefits would be raised by NT$1,500, so that parents would receive NT$5,000 per month for their first child, NT$6,000 for their second and NT$7,000 for their third, the department said.
The monthly childcare subsidy would be increased from between NT$7,000 and NT$9,000 to between NT$8,500 and NT$10,500, while public and semi-public preschool fees would be capped at NT$3,000 per month, it said.
The increases follow the introduction of several other measures earlier this month by Taipei Deputy Mayor Vivian Huang (黃珊珊), who said the goal was to reverse the city’s declining population.
Taipei Department of Civil Affairs data showed that the city’s population had dropped from 2,704,810 in 2015 to 2,524,393 last year.
Analysts said that soaring housing costs, low wages and a lack of childcare subsidies are some of the factors contributing to the steady decline of Taipei’s population, as residents are moving to less costly areas and those who remain are reluctant to have children.
The military has spotted two Chinese warships operating in waters near Penghu County in the Taiwan Strait and sent its own naval and air forces to monitor the vessels, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said. Beijing sends warships and warplanes into the waters and skies around Taiwan on an almost daily basis, drawing condemnation from Taipei. While the ministry offers daily updates on the locations of Chinese military aircraft, it only rarely gives details of where Chinese warships are operating, generally only when it detects aircraft carriers, as happened last week. A Chinese destroyer and a frigate entered waters to the southwest
A magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck off the coast of Yilan County at 8:39pm tonight, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, with no immediate reports of damage or injuries. The epicenter was 38.7km east-northeast of Yilan County Hall at a focal depth of 98.3km, the CWA’s Seismological Center said. The quake’s maximum intensity, which gauges the actual physical effect of a seismic event, was a level 4 on Taiwan’s 7-tier intensity scale, the center said. That intensity level was recorded in Yilan County’s Nanao Township (南澳), Hsinchu County’s Guansi Township (關西), Nantou County’s Hehuanshan (合歡山) and Hualien County’s Yanliao (鹽寮). An intensity of 3 was
Instead of focusing solely on the threat of a full-scale military invasion, the US and its allies must prepare for a potential Chinese “quarantine” of Taiwan enforced through customs inspections, Stanford University Hoover fellow Eyck Freymann said in a Foreign Affairs article published on Wednesday. China could use various “gray zone” tactics in “reconfiguring the regional and ultimately the global economic order without a war,” said Freymann, who is also a nonresident research fellow at the US Naval War College. China might seize control of Taiwan’s links to the outside world by requiring all flights and ships entering or leaving Taiwan
The next minimum wage hike is expected to exceed NT$30,000, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday during an award ceremony honoring “model workers,” including migrant workers, at the Presidential Office ahead of Workers’ Day today. Lai said he wished to thank the awardees on behalf of the nation and extend his most sincere respect for their hard work, on which Taiwan’s prosperity has been built. Lai specifically thanked 10 migrant workers selected for the award, saying that although they left their home countries to further their own goals, their efforts have benefited Taiwan as well. The nation’s industrial sector and small businesses lay
RSS