Professionals and businesspeople joined Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers at a legislative hearing yesterday to demand changes to regulations that they said make Taiwan unattractive to foreigners, white-collar workers and business owners.
DPP legislators Chung Chia-pin (鍾佳濱) and Yu Wan-ju (余宛如) collaborated with the Taiwan Thinktank to organize the hearing.
Yu said there are more than 662,000 foreign nationals holding valid work permits in Taiwan, and about 550,000 of these are caregivers or blue-collar workers.
About 17,000 people, or 2.58 percent, are foreign white-collar workers in the business, technical, engineering, media or professional sectors, teachers, researchers or missionaries.
Chung said Taiwan has to meet the challenges of globalization and the nation has a shortage of skilled workers, and it is time offer incentives and improved conditions to attract more foreign professionals.
“We have to face these problems now. There are foreign students who are studying here, and they want to stay and work in Taiwan. We have foreign professionals who are attracted by the friendly people and the lifestyle, but they get tired of the bureaucratic red tape, so they end up leaving,” he said.
Elias Ek, from Sweden, attended the hearing to talk about the problems he faced as a foreign worker. Living in Taipei for 17 years and married to a Taiwanese woman, Ek said that he is the founder and general manager of Enspyre, a B2B telemarketing firm in Taiwan.
Ek said he faces difficulty in his daily life and conducting business which Taiwanese do not, such as problems dealing with banks and applying for credit cards, and not being able to use e-commerce or make online payments because his ID number is different from those of Taiwanese.
“I went to a telecom service office to apply for a second mobile phone for a family member, but was told I cannot, because as a foreigner, government regulations mean I can only have one phone number,” he said.
“Because of the different ID number for foreigners, I am constantly reminded that I am a foreigner. My hope is to end the different treatment for people like me who have a family in Taiwan. Instead of a foreigner, I would like to be known as a Taiwanese citizen of Swedish descent,” he said.
Chung said he and DPP lawmakers would work on a labor bill and other laws which would lift the restrictions and relax rules on minimum salary, residency period requirements and professional work experience for foreign professionals.
Taiwanese could risk being extradited to China when traveling in countries with close ties to Beijing, Taiwan Association of University Professors deputy chairman Chen Li-fu (陳俐甫) said on Friday. Chen’s comments came after China on Friday last week announced new judicial guidelines targeting Taiwanese independence advocates. Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos and Djibouti are among the countries where Taiwanese could risk being extradited to China, he said. The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Thursday elevated the travel alert for China, Hong Kong and Macau to “orange” after Beijing announced its guidelines to “severely punish Taiwanese independence diehards for splitting the country and inciting secession.” Extradition treaties
Taiwan and Thailand have signed an agreement to promote and protect bilateral investment and trade, the Executive Yuan’s Office of Trade Negotiations (OTN) said on Friday. The agreement on “Promotion and Protection of Investments” was signed by Representative to Thailand Chang Chun-fu (張俊福) and Thailand Trade and Economic Office in Taipei executive director Narong Boonsatheanwong on Thursday, the OTN said in a news release. Thailand has become the fifth trading partner to sign an investment agreement with Taiwan since 2016, following earlier agreements with the Philippines, India, Vietnam and Canada, the OTN said. The deal marks a significant milestone in the development of
The entire Alishan Forest Railway line is to reopen for the first time in 15 years on Saturday, with tickets to go on sale at 2pm today. The historic railway from Chiayi to Alishan (阿里山) is finally set to reopen after the completion of the final No. 42 tunnel, Alishan Forest Railway and Cultural Heritage Office Deputy Director-General Chou Heng-kai (周恆凱) said. It is to run on a new timetable, with four trains daily, he said. The 9am train is to depart from Chiayi Railway Station bound for Shizilu Station (十字路), while the 10am train departing from Chiayi is to go all the
CROSS-BORDER CRIME: The suspects cannot be charged with cybercrime in Indonesia as their targets were in Malaysia, an Indonesian immigration director said Indonesian immigration authorities have detained 103 Taiwanese after a raid at a villa on Bali, officials said yesterday. They were accused of misusing their visas and residence permits, and are suspected of possible cybercrimes, Safar Muhammad Godam, director of immigration supervision and enforcement at the Indonesian Ministry of Law and Human Rights told reporters at a news conference. “The 103 foreign nationals stayed at the villa and conducted suspicious activities, which we suspect are activities related to cybercrime activities,” he said, presenting laptops and routers at the news conference. Godam said Indonesian authorities cannot charge them with conducting cybercrime. “During the inspection, we