Environmental issues, labor rights and salaries were listed as the public issues that receive the most attention, while people in different regions pay closer attention to different issues, a National Applied Research Laboratories survey released yesterday found.
The survey was the first conducted by the laboratories on the social issues about which Taiwanese are most concerned, Science and Technology Policy Research and Information Center associate researcher Lin Pin-hua (林品華) told a news conference in Taipei.
Environmental affairs were listed as the top concern by 15 percent of respondents, followed by labor rights and wages (12 percent), food safety (11 percent), public disasters (10 percent) and energy (10 percent), she said.
Photo: Chien Hui-ju, Taipei Times
People are concerned about environmental issues, such as reducing trash production and recycling, and they hope to promote policies to help middle-aged and older people return to workplace, the survey found.
They also pay attention to food security issues, such as fake or misleading labeling of food products, the effects of extreme weather on sectors such as agriculture, electricity demand, and nuclear power use and safety, it showed.
Respondents’ concerns varied across regions, as people in northern Taiwan said that they pay more attention to the reliability, self-discipline and responsibility of Internet media, as well as national identity and the nation’s name, center director-general Joung Yuh-jzer (莊裕澤) said.
People in central Taiwan focus on weather changes, water supply and quality, the concentrations of air pollutants such as PM2.5 and chlorofluorocarbon emissions, and their effects on human health and the environment, Lin said.
People in southern Taiwan expressed worry about poor water quality and flooding, Lin said, adding that they also pay attention to reducing greenhouse gas emissions to mitigate global warming.
While social issues relevant at the time of data collection could have affected respondents’ choices, the results nonetheless deserve further study, Joung said.
The poll of people older than 20 was conducted from Oct. 25 to Nov. 19 last year, and received 20,048 valid samples. Each respondent was allowed to cast 15 votes for the issues in which they were the most interested.
In terms of geographic location, 45.5 percent were from northern Taiwan, 22.1 percent from central Taiwan, 27 percent from southern Taiwan, 4.3 percent from eastern Taiwan and 1.1 percent from outlying islands.
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