Starting next month, people aged 18 to 49 can register to receive a digital Hakka token worth NT$1,000 that could be spent at participating stores across 70 Hakka cultural zones in 11 municipalities, the Hakka Affairs Council announced yesterday.
The council announced its plan to distribute 280,000 of the tokens at a news conference, which was attended by the Ministry of Digital Affairs, the central bank, Financial Information Service Co, and 17 financial and electronic payment institutions.
The goal of the program, which took about a year to coordinate, is to promote Hakka culture through the economy, and encourage people to learn and speak Hakka, integrating the language into daily life, council Minister Ku Hsiu-fei (古秀妃) said.
Photo: Liao Yao-tung, Taipei Times
People from Hakka-speaking households and those who have passed the Hakka-language proficiency test do not need to register, as the council would send about 30,000 Hakka tokens to them starting on July 1, the council said.
People aged 18 to 49 can register using their identification number from 9am on July 1 to 12pm on July 20, it said.
To ensure smooth registration, the council said it would stagger the process based on the last digit of people’s identification numbers.
Registration would open on July 1 for people with identification numbers ending in zero or one, on July 2 for those ending in two or three, on July 3 for four or five, on July 4 for six or seven and on July 5 for eight or nine, it said.
The tokens could be redeemed from Aug. 1 to June 30 next year at participating stores, where people would be able to use their Hakka token’s QR code, the council said.
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