The Executive Yuan yesterday approved a three-year plan to attract investment from Taiwanese businesses in China affected by the current US-China trade dispute.
The plan, which is to take effect on Jan. 1, focuses on five areas — land use, labor, tax services, water and electricity supply, and fast financing — and only businesses affected by the trade dispute, that have been investing in China for more than two years and that want to investing in production lines incorporating smart technology would be eligible, it said.
They must also be in an industry targeted by the government’s “five plus two” innovative industries plan or produce a high value-added product, it said.
Photo: CNA
Regulations for employing foreign workers would be relaxed for businesses that open new factories in Taiwan or expand existing ones to a certain size, it said.
For companies in the high-tech field, they must invest more than NT$250 million (US$8.11 million) and create 100 — or 20 percent — additional jobs for Taiwanese workers, it said.
Those in other industries would have to invest more than NT$50 million and create 50 — or 20 percent — more jobs for Taiwanese workers, it said.
Workers’ monthly salaries would need to be at least NT$30,000, it said.
Companies that meet those requirements would be eligible for an advanced allocation of their foreign worker quota, would not be subject to regular inspections of their local-to-foreign worker ratio for a year and be able to have foreign workers fill up to 40 percent of their jobs, it said.
The National Development Fund has also set aside NT$20 billion to loan to businesses returning to Taiwan under this plan, but this amount could be raised if the funding is used up before the end of the plan, the Executive Yuan said.
The government is able to provide about 435 hectares now and an additional 873 hectares would be included between next year and 2021, it said.
The Water Resources Agency and Taiwan Power Co are to help manufacturers quickly secure their water and electricity supplies, and national taxation bureaus nationwide are to provide businesses returning to Taiwan with consultation services, the Executive Yuan said.
InvesTaiwan is to be responsible for processing applications, which would be jointly reviewed — within two weeks — by different government agencies, it added.
In related news, during the question-and-answer portion of a meeting of the legislature’s Social Welfare and Environmental Hygiene Committee, Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Huang Hsiu-fang (黃秀芳) said that some people have already begun saying that relaxing the employment restrictions on foreign workers for returning overseas businesses would be unfair to local firms that already face a labor shortage.
Minister of Labor Hsu Ming-chun (許銘春) told Huang that the planned relaxation is conditional and that a sunset clause would be applied.
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