Representatives from the civic group Taiwan-India Association on Friday joined Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Mark Ho (何志偉) to endorse boosting bilateral trade collaboration in labor workforce management with India.
“India is a very important country for the New Southbound Policy, and we have close cooperation in bilateral trade, business and industry investment, while planning to bring Indian workers to fill in Taiwan’s acute labor shortage situation,” Ho told a press conference in Taipei.
“However, we have seen the circulation of disinformation online alleging our government will soon open up the country to 100,000 Indian migrant workers. They also claim that Taiwan would be full of sexual assault incidents, and even called for a street protest to oppose the policy,” he said.
Photo: CNA
“All these are rumors have no basis in truth. It is not possible to bring in 100,000 migrant workers in one shot... We believe it was part of ‘cognitive warfare’ efforts by foreign forces, to derail closer collaboration between Taiwan and India,” Ho said.
“We don’t want Taiwanese to have misleading notions about Indian citizens. We are here to tell everyone that Taiwanese are not hostile to Indians, that Taiwan is a country full of friendly and hospitable people,” he added.
Taiwan has a shortage of about 60,000 to 80,000 workers, said Hu Hsin-yeh (胡欣野), a senior officer from the Ministry of Labor’s Workforce Development Agency.
“Our workforce is dwindling due to Taiwan becoming an aging society with a low birthrate and a decline in workers under 45,” she said.
“Industry sectors have asked the government to deal with the labor shortage, although there are already more than 750,000 migrant workers in Taiwan, mainly from Southeast Asian countries,” she added.
Taiwan-India Association executive Sun Chi-pen (孫治本) cited information from 2020, indicating that more than 1.8 million Indians work abroad, and over half are in the Gulf states of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, UAE and Oman, where they are hired to work on public projects, as well as in construction and the agriculture sector.
“We have not heard of major crimes, or sexual assault cases from these countries,” he said.
Taiwan Tibetan Welfare Association Vice Chairman Tenzin Namda, who has Tibetan heritage and has obtained Indian citizenship, said that India has a population of about 1.4 billion and naturally there are a few “bad people.”
“But overall, India is a law-abiding society full of energetic activities. Most Indian citizens in the US are white-collar professionals working in the health and medicine, information technology and financial sectors.” he said.
“They are good quality talents, and have brought huge driving force to power US economic growth,” he said.
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
Quarantine awareness posters at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport have gone viral for their use of wordplay. Issued by the airport branch of the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency, the posters feature sniffer dogs making a range of facial expressions, paired with advisory messages built around homophones. “We update the messages for holidays and campaign needs, periodically refreshing materials to attract people’s attention,” quarantine officials said. “The aim is to use the dogs’ appeal to draw focus to quarantine regulations.” A Japanese traveler visiting Taiwan has posted a photo on X of a poster showing a quarantine dog with a
RSS