A government plan to change the format of the Alien Resident Certificate (ARC) number to match that of the national identification card is to be implemented in October next year, the National Development Council (NDC) said yesterday.
The issue of the ARC format has been a troubling one for foreign nationals in Taiwan and has been raised many times by foreign chambers of commerce, NDC Minister Chen Mei-ling (陳美伶) said at the European Chamber of Commerce Taiwan (ECCT), which was releasing its annual position paper.
On the ARC and Alien Permanent Resident Certificate (APRC), the number, which comprises two letters and eight digits, will be changed to one letter and nine digits like the one on national IDs, Chen said.
ECCT chief executive officer Freddie Hoeglund said the chamber welcomed the change, as it would give foreign nationals greater access to online services, which often do not accept the current format.
“This is something actually that we have been driving for over 10 years,” he said. “These issues are very difficult to push forward because it expands over all government agencies and also within the private sector.”
When the plan takes effect next year, about 1 million ARC and APRC holders would be issued the new numbers, Ministry of the Interior statistics showed.
They include 690,000 migrant workers, 30,000 foreign professionals and 300,000 foreign spouses of Taiwanese who have not yet obtained national IDs, the data showed.
Rain is to increase from Wednesday morning as Severe Tropical Storm Kong-Rey approaches, with sea warnings to be issued as early as tomorrow afternoon, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. As of 8am, Kong-Rey was 1,050km east-southeast of the Hengchun Peninsula (恆春) heading in a northwesterly direction toward Taiwan, CWA Forecast Center Director Lin Po-tung (林伯東) said. Rainfall is to increase from Wednesday morning, especially in northern Taiwan and Yilan County, he said. A sea warning is possible from tomorrow afternoon, while a land warning may be issued on Wednesday morning, he added. Kong-Rey may intensify into a moderate typhoon as it passes
Hong Kong singer Andy Lau’s (劉德華) concert in Taipei tonight has been cancelled due to Typhoon Kong-rei and is to be held at noon on Saturday instead, the concert organizer SuperDome said in a statement this afternoon. Tonight’s concert at Taipei Arena was to be the first of four consecutive nightly performances by Lau in Taipei, but it was called off at the request of Taipei Metro, the operator of the venue, due to the weather, said the organizer. Taipei Metro said the concert was cancelled out of consideration for the audience’s safety. The decision disappointed a number of Lau’s fans who had
Taiwan yesterday issued warnings to four Chinese coast guard vessels that intruded into restricted waters around the Taiwan-controlled Kinmen Islands, according to the Coast Guard Administration (CGA). The four China Coast Guard ships were detected approaching restricted waters south of Kinmen at around 2 pm yesterday, the CGA’s Kinmen-Matsu Branch said in a statement. The CGA said it immediately deployed four patrol boats to closely monitor the situation. When the Chinese ships with the hull numbers "14512," "14609," "14603" and "14602" separately entered the restricted waters off Fuhsing islet (復興嶼), Zhaishan (翟山), Sinhu (新湖) and Liaoluo (料羅) at 3 pm, the Taiwanese patrol
A former member of the US Naval Special Warfare Development Group (DEVGRU), formerly known as SEAL Team 6, said in an interview with Business Insider that the elite unit’s role in a Taiwan Strait conflict would be more limited than some might expect. The report follows an earlier one in September by the Financial Times, which said the “clandestine US Navy commando unit” has been training for missions to help Taiwan if it is invaded by China. “You don’t use a scalpel for a job a hammer can do,” the former Navy Seal said to Business Insider on condition of anonymity.
RSS