Restrictions on the hiring of foreign workers, including skilled and unskilled workers, as well as foreign and ethnic Chinese students, are to be eased to counter a continuing decrease in the nation’s labor force, the Executive Yuan said yesterday.
The Cabinet said it would revise regulations on foreign workers’ employment and stay by the end of this month, with an aim to hire or keep about 6,000 to 7,000 foreign workers in the following year based on the changes.
Ministry of Labor official Liu Chu-chun (劉佳鈞) said that the nation’s labor force has dwindled in recent years, as it has been losing about 20,000 to 30,000 workers per year to other countries.
The government is hoping to attract and retain foreign workers in the face of a brain drain and a shortage of skilled workers, he added.
The ministry has decided to scrap the thresholds on capital and revenue for companies to hire foreign skilled workers, Liu said.
“The requirements regarding foreign employees’ wage and work experience will also be canceled. A point-based system will be introduced instead, with working permits granted for those scoring more than 60 points based on their educational attainment, foreign language ability and professional competence,” he said.
“Those hired with a monthly salary of more than NT$47,971 will be exempted from the point-based assessment,” he added.
“Another big change is the spouse and children of foreign white-collar workers will also be allowed to work as professionals, unbound by thresholds of wage and experience,” he said.
Current regulations that put a cap on the number — 2,500 per year — of foreign graduates of Taiwanese universities, including those of Chinese ethnicity, allowed to stay and work in the country are also to be eased.
Employers would no longer be required to meet minimum capital and revenue thresholds of NT$5 million (US$151,962) and NT$10 million respectively to be able to hire foreign graduates, who would be allowed to stay in Taiwan if they reach 70 in the point-based system, the ministry said.
According to the ministry, about 5,000 foreign students graduate from Taiwanese universities every year, but most of them leave the country after finishing their studies.
“Only 620 stayed in 2012, and about 930 in 2013. The figure almost doubled in 2014, reaching 1,721, because we started the point-based system that year,” he said.
“Also, [thresholds on] wages would no longer be part of the evaluation of the point-based system. It would now be counted simply as a bonus point,” the official said.
Unskilled foreign workers, which numbered about 585,000 as of October, would be recategorized as skilled workers after working in Taiwan for nine years.
The change in working status would make their visa or permanent residency application easier, with the residency of their spouses and dependents also being taken into consideration, Liu said.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
SECURITY RISK: If there is a conflict between China and Taiwan, ‘there would likely be significant consequences to global economic and security interests,’ it said China remains the top military and cyber threat to the US and continues to make progress on capabilities to seize Taiwan, a report by US intelligence agencies said on Tuesday. The report provides an overview of the “collective insights” of top US intelligence agencies about the security threats to the US posed by foreign nations and criminal organizations. In its Annual Threat Assessment, the agencies divided threats facing the US into two broad categories, “nonstate transnational criminals and terrorists” and “major state actors,” with China, Russia, Iran and North Korea named. Of those countries, “China presents the most comprehensive and robust military threat