LABOR
More jobs for foreigners
Foreigners who graduated from a Taiwanese school would be eligible for mid-level jobs in the hospitality industry by the end of this month, the Ministry of Labor said. An amendment to the Regulations on the Permission and Administration of the Employment of Foreign Workers would allow foreign graduates take mid-level jobs that were traditionally less accessible, the ministry said. The aim is to retain more foreign students who undertake internships or part-time jobs while studying in the country, or who seek employment after graduation under a points system. Under the new policy, foreign graduates with associate degrees or higher would be allowed to take up jobs in housekeeping, cleaning, room reservation and catering at hotels across the nation, the ministry said. The entry-level monthly salary is NT$30,000, which would rise to NT$33,000 if a contract is renewed, the ministry’s Cross-Border Workforce Management Division head Su Yu-kuo (蘇裕國) said. The new system could help address the nation’s projected workforce shortfall of 400,000 by 2030, the ministry said.
CRIME
‘Scammers’ under probe
Prosecutors are investigating 27 suspects in a case linked to a NT$400 million (US$12.27 million) investment scam that used fake endorsements from celebrities and reputable companies in promotional materials, the Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) said on Wednesday. At least 38 victims fell for the scam, which operated from May to December last year, including a woman who was defrauded of more than NT$100 million, the CIB said. The bureau received a tip-off in September last year from a victim who responded to an investment advertisement he saw on Facebook, CIB police officer Chiu Cheng-di (邱承迪) said. The victim joined a Line investment group, which advertised under the name of financial celebrity Lai Hsien-cheng (賴憲政), and downloaded an investment app purportedly from a well-known Japanese securities company, Chiu said. After following the scammers’ instructions to transfer money to a designated bank account, the victim realized he had been cheated when the money disappeared, Chiu said. The bureau launched an investigation in November and found that the scammers, led by two men, surnamed Liang (梁) and Chang (張), recruited several people to establish nine fake companies and 24 corporate accounts. The people were confined in a rented apartment in Hsinchu, and paid a commission amounting to 1 percent of the illicit money they were instructed to withdraw from the bogus accounts, the bureau said.
EDUCATION
Preschool stops enrollment
A private preschool in New Taipei City where a teacher was found to have physically mistreated children has been ordered to suspend enrollment for one year. A teacher at Hess Young Scholar’s English School in Sanchong District (三重) disciplined children by forcing them to do bridge poses, jumping for extended periods, and hitting them on the head and limbs with notebooks, the city’s Education Department said. For illegally inflicting corporal punishment on five children, Lin was fined NT$600,000 and banned for life from working as an educator, the department said, adding that Lin has been suspended since parents first reported the alleged abuse in May. The owner of the preschool, surnamed Chien (簡), was fined NT$60,000 for mismanagement and NT$126,000 for infractions such as inadequate teacher-student ratio, not meeting health and sanitary conditions, and employing ineligible persons as caregivers, it said. The department said that children currently enrolled in the preschool would not be affected. However, the preschool must explain the violations to parents, as well as the subsequent arrangement of its teachers and caregivers, improvement measures and refund procedures, it added.
Taipei and New Taipei City government officials are aiming to have the first phase of the Wanhua-Jungho-Shulin Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) line completed and opened by 2027, following the arrival of the first train set yesterday. The 22km-long Light Green Line would connect four densely populated districts in Taipei and New Taipei City: Wanhua (萬華), Jhonghe (中和), Tucheng (土城) and Shulin (樹林). The first phase of the project would connect Wanhua and Jhonghe districts, with Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall and Chukuang (莒光) being the terminal stations. The two municipalities jointly hosted a ceremony for the first train to be used
MILITARY AID: Taiwan has received a first batch of US long-range tactical missiles ahead of schedule, with a second shipment expected to be delivered by 2026 The US’ early delivery of long-range tactical ballistic missiles to Taiwan last month carries political and strategic significance, a military source said yesterday. According to the Ministry of National Defense’s budget report, the batch of military hardware from the US, including 11 sets of M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) and 64 MGM-140 Army Tactical Missile Systems, had been scheduled to be delivered to Taiwan between the end of this year and the beginning of next year. However, the first batch arrived last month, earlier than scheduled, with the second batch —18 sets of HIMARS, 20 MGM-140 missiles and 864 M30
Representative to the US Alexander Yui delivered a letter from the government to US president-elect Donald Trump during a meeting with a former Trump administration official, CNN reported yesterday. Yui on Thursday met with former US national security adviser Robert O’Brien over a private lunch in Salt Lake City, Utah, with US Representative Chris Stewart, the Web site of the US cable news channel reported, citing three sources familiar with the matter. “During that lunch the letter was passed along, and then shared with Trump, two of the sources said,” CNN said. O’Brien declined to comment on the lunch, as did the Taipei
A woman who allegedly attacked a high-school student with a utility knife, injuring his face, on a Taipei metro train late on Friday has been transferred to prosecutors, police said yesterday. The incident occurred near MRT Xinpu Station at about 10:17pm on a Bannan Line train headed toward Dingpu, New Taipei City police said. Before police arrived at the station to arrest the suspect, a woman surnamed Wang (王) who is in her early 40s, she had already been subdued by four male passengers, one of whom was an off-duty Taipei police officer, police said. The student, 17, who sustained a cut about
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