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The Latest Expat Headlines in English
Covering the latest Taiwan expat news headlines in English on what matters for foreigners visiting or living on the island.
Crossroads — Early this year, Taiwan’s legislature passed a set of amendments to the Labor Standards Act (LSA), Taiwan’s core statute governing labor and employment.
These amendments, which were officially implemented on March 1, 2018, feature changes intended to provide greater flexibility to employers whose business needs may make compliance with the previous strict set of amendments difficult. […]
2018/09/08 15:17
Politics
Taipei, Mar. 7 (CNA) by William Yen, CNA (Image: Kaibigan Jay)
South China Morning Post — Shift in rules should simplify the process of changing jobs or moving among mainland cities.
It will be easier for Hongkongers working on mainland China to change jobs or move among cities there in the future, after Beijing said on Friday it would abolish a work permit requirement for employees from the city, Macau and Taiwan.[…]
2018/08/04 13:01
Society Travel
Taipei, August 3 (Taiwan News) by Keoni Everington
Taiwan News — Taiwan has been ranked among the top 10 holiday destinations for travelers in eight Asian countries, according to a newly released survey by the travel website Skyscanner.
In a survey carried out in May on 5,000 Skyscanner users based in nine Asian countries/territories, Taiwan was ranked as having the second most searches by would-be travelers in Hong Kong, while it ranked third in Japan, fifth in China, sixth in South Korea, eighth in the Philippines and Malaysia, 10th in Singapore and 18th in Vietnam.[…]
2018/08/03 12:59
Society
Taiwan News, Aug. 2 (CNA) by Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer
Taiwan News — The Philippines’ representative office in Taiwan has launched an app to improve connections with and between Filipino citizens on the island, the Central News Agency reported Thursday.
The Manila Economic and Cultural Office (MECO), as it is officially known, has turned a version of its website into an app called MECO Ph available in Google Play and Apple Store, representative Angelito Banayo told CNA.[…]
2018/08/02 17:37
– – July News 2018 – –
Society
Taipei Times, July. 31. by a Staff writer, with CNA.
Taipei Times — EDUCATIONAL IMBALANCE: The overwhelming majority of foreigners in Taiwan perform non-professional jobs, while more than 700,000 highly educated Taiwanese work abroad.
Taiwan is experiencing a severe imbalance between talent inflows and outflows, with the majority of Taiwanese leaving to work abroad having higher education degrees that qualify them for professional jobs, while most foreigners working in Taiwan are non-professionals, an official research report said.[…]
Focus Taiwan — Foreigners holding an Alien Permanent Resident Certificate (APRC) might be considered for unemployment payments and other social benefits.
Government departments including the Ministry of Labor and the National Development Council were discussing proposals to apply employment insurance to the foreign residents under the government’s current economic migrant policies.[…]
Focus Taiwan — Taiwan on Thursday announced that it is extending a trial 14-day visa-free entry program for nationals from Brunei, the Philippines and Thailand for another year, starting Aug. 1.
“The measure is being continued to attract visitors from New Southbound Policy partner countries for tourism and business purposes, and to increase people-to-people exchanges,” MOFA said in a statement.[…]
Taiwan News — After 10 years in Shanghai, Taiwanese man refutes myth that life is better in China.
After having lived and worked in Shanghai for 10 years and returned home for one year, a Taiwanese man refutes the myth that life is somehow better for his countrymen in China by creating a list showing most aspects of life are in fact far better in Taiwan.[…]
The Economist — WHEN it comes to asserting sovereignty over Taiwan, no fight is too small for Chinese officials. In January censors shut down the website of Marriott, a hotel chain, after it referred to Taiwan as well as Tibet, Hong Kong and Macau as countries in a customer survey. The site was unblocked only after the company’s chief executive issued a grovelling public apology.
In April China complained about an online allusion to Taiwan as a country by organisers of the Man Booker prize for fiction (they eventually chose a fudge, listing the island instead as a “country/territory”).[…]
Asia Times — At least 300,000 Filipino tourists are expected to visit Taiwan this year due to the new visa-free policy that came into effect late last year.
According to Alfred Y.H. Wang, a director of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office (TECO), the number of tourists increased from 172,475 in 2016 to 290,784 last year.[…]
2018/06/26 17:32
Politics Society
Taipei, June 26 (CNA) by Claudia Liu and S.C. Chang
Focus Taiwan — The Ministry of the Interior (MOI) approved applications Tuesday by 18 foreign professionals to become naturalized Taiwanese, including well-known radio and TV broadcaster Jeffrey Mindich.
They are among 50 foreign professionals in six fields that include science and technology, education and economics to have been granted Republic of China citizenship after five rounds of screening meetings, according to a MOI statement.[…]
The Sydney Morning Herald — The Turnbull government has signed a deal to send refugees on Nauru who need urgent medical care to Taiwan, in an undisclosed arrangement aimed at stopping them from applying to stay in Australia after being treated in local hospitals.
Fairfax Media can reveal Australia signed a memorandum of understanding with Taiwan – which is not a signatory to the 1951 Refugee Convention – in September last year that has so far seen about five refugees flown 5500 kilometres to the capital Taipei for high-level care.[…]
2018/06/22 22:54
Society Travel
Taipei, June 14 (Taipei Times) by Chen Kuan-pei and Sherry Hsiao
Taipei Times — A wind farm comprised of 432 vertical-axis wind turbines on the coast of Changhua County’s Fangyuan Township has become the county’s latest tourist attraction.
The DS-3000 turbines, which has a two-blade system that guarantees high efficiency while enabling the system to activate even with very weak winds, were erected by a power company, which rented about 26,000 ping (85,950m2) of idle fish farms in the township’s Sinbao Village, near the Wanggong Fishing Port.[…]
Eye On Taiwan — The Tourism Bureau has rolled out several initiatives to help boost tourism in parts of Southern Taiwan. The move came after mounting pressure from Taiwan’s Legislature concerned about the struggling tourism in Southern Taiwan’s Kenting, Dapeng Bay, Little Liquid and Hengchun Old Town as a result of a sharp reduction in the number of mainland Chinese visitors.
Those initiatives include providing subsidies for members of the tourism industry and devising attractive travel packages, such as charters flights between Hengchun Airport and Southeast Asian countries to encourage more international tourists to visit southern Taiwan.[…]
2018/06/13 16:22
Society Travel
Taipei, June 7 (MIGRANT WORKERS) by Asia Times Staff
Asia Times — Police say that migrant workers in the southern industrial district around Kaohsiung have become serial road safety offenders, with officers stopping them regularly for offences like drink-driving and riding a motorbike without a license.
There are more than 8,000 migrant workers from Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, Vietnam and Indonesia at factories in the county, according to Gangshan Precinct of the Kaohsiung City Police Department, which admits it has problems communicating with them.[…]
Taiwan News — Taipei City’s Foreign and Disabled Labor Office (FDLO) will provide six intensive training sessions for the city’s foreign caregivers to help them sharpen caregiving skills and adapt to the local environment, stating June, the FDLO said on Wednesday.
According to the agency, the trainings will be delivered by experts in the fields of nursing and consulting. Coursework spans a wide range of caregiving essentials, such as oral hygiene, safety points on moving the care recipient, administering back-patting on the recipient, meal-feeding techniques, wheelchair transport techniques, medication instructions, and mental health promotions[…]
Focus Taiwan — Riders of public bicycles in Taipei and New Taipei will get to enjoy free third-party liability insurance coverage effective from June 1, the Taipei City Department of Transportation announced Thursday.
The insurance compensation for the injury or death of a third party caused by such a bike rider will be a maximum of NT$2 million (US$66,800).[…]
2018/05/31 23:16
Politics
Taipei, May 30 (The National Interest) by Michael Mazza
The National Interest — Taiwan has lost yet another diplomatic ally, with Burkina Faso cutting ties with the island. That news coincided with China’s dis-invitation from America’s Rim of the Pacific Exercise and the cancellation of the summit between United States President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, making Burkina Faso’s abandonment of Taiwan seem inconsequential by comparison.
After all, Taiwan’s unofficial relationship with the United States is far more valuable to Taipei than are its formal diplomatic partners.[…]
Focus Taiwan — The Cabinet on Tuesday proposed further relaxing rules governing the recruitment and employment of foreign professionals, in an effort to attract more overseas talent to meet the nation’s needs in developing key industries and building a bilingual education system.
The extent to which the regulations governing recruitment and employment have been eased over the years “is insufficient” for Taiwan to attract foreign talent[…]
Focus Taiwan — The Tourism Bureau announced Tuesday that it has set aside NT$40 million (US$1.34 million) to subsidize tour operators who offer tour packages to five national scenic areas in southern Taiwan.
The locations include the Siraya National Scenic Area in Tainan, Maolin National Scenic Area in Kaohsiung, Dapeng Bay National Scenic Area in Pingtung County, Penghu National Scenic Area, and East Coast National Scenic Area in Taitung County.[…]
DW Asia — Despite a tumultuous political relationship, China and Taiwan have always maintained a steady exchange of tourism. But a recent decline in Chinese tourists to Taiwan has highlighted just how vital this exchange is.
According to statistics from the Taiwan Tourism Bureau, Chinese tourist arrivals in Taiwan peaked in 2015, with four million Chinese visitors descending on the island during that year.[…]
2018/05/15 21:35
Politics
Taipei, May 11 (CNA) By Yu Hsiao-han and William Yen
Focus Taiwan — A new rule that no longer requires foreign entertainers to get a formal approval from venues where they intend to perform took effect Friday, the Ministry of Labor (MOL) said in a statement.
The amendments to the Qualifications and Criteria Standards for foreign nationals undertaking jobs specified under Article 46.1.1 to 46.1.6 of the Employment Service Act have gone into effect, the statement issued by the MOL’s Workforce Development Agency (WDA) noted.[…]
2018/05/11 23:04
Society
Taipei, May. 10 (U.K. based higher education information provider Quacquarelli Symonds) by Huang Chung-hsin
Taiwan Today — Taipei and Hsinchu placed 20th and 73rd, respectively, in the top 100 student cities list released May 8 by U.K.-based higher education information provider Quacquarelli Symonds.
Moving up one place from last year, Taipei ranked sixth in Asia ahead of Beijing, 26th; Shanghai, 29th; and Kuala Lumpur, 37th; and behind Tokyo, second; Seoul, 10th; Hong Kong, 12th; Singapore, 15th; and the Kyoto-Osaka-Kobe metropolitan region, 19th. The 2018 index was topped by London, with Melbourne in third.[…]
2018/05/10 16:33
Society
Taipei, May. 2 (ifi.immigration.gov.tw) National Immigration Agency, Ministry of the Interior
Taiwan Immigration Agency, Ministry of the Interior — In order to strengthen immigration counselling and counselling hotline service quality and effectiveness, National Immigration Agency’s “Life Counselling Service Hotline for Foreigners Living in Taiwan: 0800-024-111” will extend its services in Indonesian, Thai, and Cambodian languages to Mondays to Fridays (excluding national holidays and other holidays) from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. (8 hours a day), starting May 1, 2018.
According to National Immigration Agency, this hotline provides free 24-hour counselling service in Chinese, English, and Japanese. For Southeast Asian languages, Vietnamese is offered Mondays to Fridays (excluding national holidays and other holidays) from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., a total of 8 hours counselling service, while Indonesian, Thai, and Cambodian languages are offered only from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m., a total of 4 hours of service. […]
Taiwan News — The EasyCards now used mainly for Mass Rapid Transit and bus travel in Taipei City will be used on the Japanese island of Okinawa from next July, the EasyCard Corporation said Friday.
The cooperation with the Yui Rail service in Okinawa City is the first time EasyCards will be used overseas, the United Daily News reported. In Taiwan, the cards are not only used for public transportation inside and outside the capital, but also to make payments in shops.[…]
Taiwan News — A flurry of criticisms of the Taiwan Tourism Bureau has got a bit out of hand, so let’s take a more reasoned look at their role – The Taiwan Tourism Bureau has been taking a fair bit of flak on social media of late and it seemed only fair to try and put these criticisms into context a little bit.
Blog posts such as this one, entitled “Something Very Wrong Is Happening at Taiwan Tourism Board” have fuelled this thinking, and while some of the criticisms being levelled are valid, others are, in my view, a little excessive.[…]
2018/04/20 12:21
Society
Taipei, April 18 (CNA) by Chen Cheng-wei and William Yen
Focus Taiwan — Residence permit holders in Taiwan will be able to take part in an online policy participation platform to submit tips and proposals in June, according to the National Development Council (NDC).
The Public Policy Participation Network Platform, set up by the NDC in February 2015, is a way for people to participate in public affairs, through which the government has established a channel for rational dialogue and communication with the general public.[…]
Taiwan News — A total of 32 foreign professionals have now been able to obtain Taiwanese citizenship while not having to give up their original nationality. As part of a new policy that went into effect last year, nine foreign professionals yesterday (April 17) were granted special permission to become naturalized as Taiwanese citizens, while not having to relinquish their original nationality, announced the Ministry of the Interior (MOI).
At its fourth meeting to review applications by professionals to become naturalized Taiwanese citizens held yesterday, the MOI selected nine new recipients, bringing the total number of foreign nationals accepted under the new program to 32.[…]
Focus Taiwan — The U.S. dollar rose against the Taiwan dollar Friday, gaining NT$0.042 to close at NT$29.302.
Turnover totaled US$1.22 billion during the trading session. The greenback opened at NT$29.265 and moved between NT$29.245 and NT$29.360 before the close.[…]
2018/04/13 16:13
Politics
Taipei, April 12 (CNA) by Yu Hsiao-han and Evelyn Kao
Focus Taiwan — The Ministry of Labor said Thursday that it has implemented a new measure that makes it easier for international students in Taiwan to apply for work permits.
Under the new regulations that took effect March 23, foreign and overseas compatriot students need only submit a photocopy of their passports, along with the work permit application form, said Chiu Yueh-yun (邱月雲), a division head in the ministry’s Workforce Development Agency (WDA).[…]
Taiwan News — The National Immigration Agency (NIA) will actively track down illegal brokers and employers while helping out unaccounted-for foreign workers, Director-General Jeff Yang (楊家駿) told the Chinese-language Liberty Times.
Most foreign laborers in Taiwan hail from Southeast Asian countries, and are sometimes victimized by labor brokerage agencies demanding high fees or by employers exploiting their position, reports said.[…]
Focus Taiwan — A new law that relaxes requirements for foreign professionals to work in Taiwan is a good first step toward attracting foreign talent, but more needs to be done, a representative of the European Chamber of Commerce Taiwan (ECCT) said Monday.
Asked about the passage of the Act for the Recruitment and Employment of Foreign Professionals, which took effect Feb. 8, Freddie Hoeglund, ECCT chief executive officer, said the act makes it easier for foreign professionals to work in Taiwan.[…]
Focus Taiwan — Taiwan’s government is assessing the possibility of establishing a United States border preclearance system at its main airport to expedite travel by its citizens to the U.S., the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said Friday.
The relevant government ministries are already examining the issue and discussing how such a system can be put in place at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, according to MOFA spokesman Andrew Lee (李憲章).[…]
Focus Taiwan — A special prize draw is being offered to users of the public bicycle rental service YouBike in Taipei from March 20 to the end of May, the city’s Department of Transportation announced Tuesday.
For every 10 rides paid for with Easy Card before May 31 users will automatically be entered in a prize draw, with gifts ranging from Apple’s iPhone X to free souvenir Easy Cards with a stored value of NT$500, it said.[…]
Focus Taiwan — The value of approved foreign investment in Taiwan in February soared more than 300 percent from a year earlier after Japan-based Itochu Corp. agreed to buy a stake in Taiwan’s tallest building Taipei 101, the Investment Commission said Tuesday.
The commission said it approved 208 foreign investment applications (excluding those from China) to pump US$905 million into Taiwan, up 342 percent from a year earlier.[…]
Taiwan English News — Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Office of the President thanked the US President for signing the Taiwan Travel Act, putting into law the encouragement of high-level visits between officials of the two countries.
President Trump signed the Taiwan Travel Act Friday evening, March 16. The act was passed unanimously by the US Congress January 9, 2018.[…]
Focus Taiwan — The Tourism Bureau said Tuesday that it is working with a private company to launch a mobile app next month, featuring real-time interaction between foreign tourists and an online travel assistant who can speak their language.
The app, called TourTalk, will provide real people who can communicate with tourists online during their stay in Taiwan, giving them language assistance, making travel recommendations and fixing problems.[…]
Focus Taiwan — The Ministry of Finance will launch an official mobile app next year that will allow winners of the bi-monthly uniform invoice lottery managed by the ministry to claim their prizes through electronic transactions and have their prize money remitted into their bank accounts, according to a ministry report.
According to the report to be delivered by Finance Minister Sheu Yu-jer (許虞哲) to the Legislative Yuan Wednesday, the app will be launched next year and the number of outlets in which winners of prizes of NT$1,000 (US$34) or below can claim their prize money will increase from about 1,000 at present to 12,968, including the four major convenience store chains in Taiwan and several financial institutions.[…]
Eye on Taiwan — Migrant worker rights groups in Taiwan are set to hold a flash mob dance at Taipei Main Station on Sunday to call for better rights for foreign migrant workers, especially female caregivers, in the country.
The event, now in its fifth year, is to show solidarity with the One Billion Rising campaign, a global campaign launched by playwright and activist Eve Ensler in 2012 to highlight violence against women, said Gilda Banugan, chairperson of Migrante International’s Taiwan Chapter, an organization that fights for the rights of Filipino migrant workers.[…]
Focus Taiwan — The host of a weekly radio program that seeks to inform and answer the questions of Filipino migrant workers about their rights and obligations in Taiwan, as laid out in the nation’s labor laws, says the show also tries to make them “feel at home” on the island.
The show’s host, Kaibigan Jay, born in the southern port city of Kaohsiung to a Filipino mother, fronts the program which invites listeners to voice their concerns about life in Taiwan.[…]
Taiwan News — International airlines are flocking back to Taiwan after a long absence to cash in on Taiwanese tourists and trade opportunities.
Despite pressure to not recognize Taiwan as a country on their websites by China, several international air carriers are restoring their services to Taiwan because of the potential for increased tourism and trade.[…]
Taiwan News — Changes to the Labor Standards Act (勞動基準法) demanded by businesses will go affect today (March 1), despite many protests by labor groups for backsliding on labor rights.
Passed on Jan. 10, the amendment to the Labor Standards Act relaxes the “one fixed day off, one flexible day off” (一例一休) regulations in a concession to business groups.[…]
Taiwan English News — The US Senate passed the Taiwan Travel Act (HR535 Taiwan Travel Act) with no objections Wednesday, February 28. The legislation only needs President Donald Trump’s signature to become law.
The bill says it should be U.S. policy to allow officials at all levels to travel to Taiwan to meet their Taiwanese counterparts and permit high-level Taiwanese officials to enter the United States.[…]
Focus Taiwan — Riders of public bicycles in Taipei, New Taipei, Taoyuan and Kaohsiung will all enjoy free insurance coverage, starting sometime in the second quarter of the year.
Chairman Chen Tsan-huang (陳燦煌) of the Non-Life Insurance Association of the Republic of China announced Thursday that the respective city governments will invest in insurance for users of their bike sharing services.[…]
Focus Taiwan — Applications are now open for a new type of visa for foreign nationals wishing to enter Taiwan to seek white-collar jobs, following the implementation on Feb. 8 of a law aimed at attracting foreign professionals, the national Bureau of Consular Affairs (BOCA) said Monday.
A quota of 2,000 has been set for the first year of the job-seeking visa, which allows foreign nationals to remain in Taiwan for up to six months while looking for employment. […]
Taiwan News — Taiwan’s Act for the Recruitment and Employment of Foreign Professional Talent officially went into effect yesterday (Feb. 8), according to the National Development Council (NDC).
On Oct. 31, Taiwan’s Legislature passed the Act for the Recruitment and Employment of Foreign Professional Talent (外國專業人才延攬及僱用法) in an bid to attract and retain more international professionals in the country, and it officially went into effect on Thursday of this week. Among the 10 new incentives included with the law, qualified foreign professionals now have the option of applying for a four-in-one “Employment Gold Card” (就業金卡), which includes a work permit, residence visa, alien residency permit and re-entry permit. […]
China Post — Taiwan was listed 13th in the 2018 global rankings for economic freedom, a fall of two places from last year due mainly to a lower score in investment freedom, according to the U.S. Heritage Foundation, which released the index Friday.
A year after Taiwan achieved its highest ranking of 11th on the index, which was first compiled in 1995, it fell to 13th in the latest rankings, with declines in property rights, business freedom, labor freedom, monetary freedom and investment freedom. […]
Focus Taiwan — A Taiwanese child grows up learning arts, science and other subjects at school in both Chinese and English. That child becomes immersed in both languages and years later, when attending an international youth summit, he or she can fluently express ideas in English and communicate with peers from around the world.
Meanwhile, taxi drivers, night market vendors and people from all walks of life in Taiwan are able to speak a little English and communicate on a basic level with foreign English speakers visiting the country. […]
