Taiwanese believe that marriage, birth and child education, and elderly care policies need the most urgent attention, results of a Taiwan Youth Policy poll released yesterday showed.
However, about 70 percent of the respondents needed to be made aware of political parties’ policies for young people, the poll found.
The results were announced at a joint news conference hosted by the Taiwan Thinktank, the Taiwan Youth Foundation, the Taiwan Association of University Professors and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Huang Hsiu-fang’s (黃秀芳) office. The Taiwan Thinktank commissioned Da Di Polling and Research Co to conduct the survey.
The poll of Taiwanese aged 18 or older received 1,083 valid responses, Taiwan Thinktank deputy executive director-general Doong Sy-chi (董思齊) said.
Asked to rate how well the government is taking care of young people’s needs on a scale of one to 10, the scores averaged 5.48.
Of the respondents, 86 percent said that the government should propose policies aimed at the younger generation, an idea that even 75 percent of people aged 70 or older agreed with.
Asked which political party’s youth policy was the most attractive, 17 percent of respondents chose the DPP, 6 percent chose the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), 3 percent chose the Taiwan People’s Party and 1 percent chose the New Power Party.
Of the respondents, 85 percent agreed that candidates in next year’s presidential election should focus on policies for young people and present youth policy white papers.
In terms of respondents’ priorities, from most important to least, marriage between young people, child rearing and care for the elderly topped the list, while poverty among young people (including low wages and overwork), finding jobs and entrepreneurship, preferential loans for new businesses and youth participation in politics placed at the bottom.
Huang said that she had suggested to Premier Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) that he include younger politicians when he reshuffled the Cabinet, and called for the promotion of more policies that affect the younger generation.
David Huang (黃適卓), a former vice dean at Kainan University, said that policies for young people are quite complex as they affect multiple generations, adding that such complex issues require collaboration between agencies.
The Youth Affairs Administration (YFA) was transferred from the Executive Yuan to the Ministry of Education during former president Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration, and in its current status, is incapable of handling youth affairs, David Huang said.
The government should emphasize youth affairs, and would demonstrate its resolve if it moved the YFA to a higher tier, he said.
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