China’s 31 incentives to attract Taiwanese businesses and professionals would only have a limited effect on Taiwan, National Development Council (NDC) Minister Chen Mei-ling (陳美伶) said yesterday, adding that the government will introduce better incentives to retain talented people.
The 31 incentives, announced by China’s Taiwan Affairs Office on Feb. 28, include tax cuts, investment capital and relaxed restrictions on certification for 134 professions, which sparked concerns at home over Taiwan losing its competitiveness.
Premier William Lai (賴清德) was originally planning to hold a cross-agency meeting yesterday to discuss the government’s response strategies, but the Executive Yuan on Sunday night canceled the meeting, saying more time is needed to collect information.
Photo: Wu Po-hsuan, Taipei Times
Chen yesterday attended a question-and-answer session at the legislature’s Economics Committee to report on the council’s policies.
The Executive Yuan has convened an ad hoc committee, presided by Vice Premier Shih Jun-ji (施俊吉), to collect response strategies from government agencies, Chen said.
The strategies have not been revealed because they have not been completed yet, she told the media before the session.
Many of the incentives offered by China are old policies and their effects on Taiwan would not be severe, she said.
Lai has proposed plans to remove investment barriers on local businesses, retain talented people and recruit foreign professionals since taking office last year, and many of the plans — although not specifically targeting the Chinese incentives — would be gradually carried out this year, she said.
It is inevitable that talented people would be courted by businesses, Chen said.
As far as Taiwan is concerned, the key is improving its leverage and boosting its self-confidence, she added.
“When we improve Taiwan’s investment environment, talented people would want to stay here and more investments would follow,” Chen said.
Although Chinese firms offer extraordinary salaries to attract talent from around the world, Taiwan can retain domestic professionals by raising their salaries, and introducing better incentives and work opportunities, she said.
In another legislative session yesterday, Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中) said that about 200 medical professionals are working in China, which has been long offering high salaries to attract them.
Talented people are competing in a global environment, while how to improve the salaries and working conditions of healthcare workers and show them due respect are key issues for the ministry, Chen Shih-chung said.
Death row inmate Huang Lin-kai (黃麟凱), who was convicted for the double murder of his former girlfriend and her mother, is to be executed at the Taipei Detention Center tonight, the Ministry of Justice announced. Huang, who was a military conscript at the time, was convicted for the rape and murder of his ex-girlfriend, surnamed Wang (王), and the murder of her mother, after breaking into their home on Oct. 1, 2013. Prosecutors cited anger over the breakup and a dispute about money as the motives behind the double homicide. This is the first time that Minister of Justice Cheng Ming-chien (鄭銘謙) has
BITTERLY COLD: The inauguration ceremony for US president-elect Donald Trump has been moved indoors due to cold weather, with the new venue lacking capacity A delegation of cross-party lawmakers from Taiwan, led by Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), for the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump, would not be able to attend the ceremony, as it is being moved indoors due to forecasts of intense cold weather in Washington tomorrow. The inauguration ceremony for Trump and US vice president-elect JD Vance is to be held inside the Capitol Rotunda, which has a capacity of about 2,000 people. A person familiar with the issue yesterday said although the outdoor inauguration ceremony has been relocated, Taiwan’s legislative delegation has decided to head off to Washington as scheduled. The delegation
TRANSPORT CONVENIENCE: The new ticket gates would accept a variety of mobile payment methods, and buses would be installed with QR code readers for ease of use New ticketing gates for the Taipei metro system are expected to begin service in October, allowing users to swipe with cellphones and select credit cards partnered with Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC), the company said on Tuesday. TRTC said its gates in use are experiencing difficulty due to their age, as they were first installed in 2007. Maintenance is increasingly expensive and challenging as the manufacturing of components is halted or becoming harder to find, the company said. Currently, the gates only accept EasyCard, iPass and electronic icash tickets, or one-time-use tickets purchased at kiosks, the company said. Since 2023, the company said it
Another wave of cold air would affect Taiwan starting from Friday and could evolve into a continental cold mass, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Temperatures could drop below 10°C across Taiwan on Monday and Tuesday next week, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. Seasonal northeasterly winds could bring rain, he said. Meanwhile, due to the continental cold mass and radiative cooling, it would be cold in northern and northeastern Taiwan today and tomorrow, according to the CWA. From last night to this morning, temperatures could drop below 10°C in northern Taiwan, it said. A thin coat of snow
RSS