Draft bill to attract foreign nationals would create more jobs, raise real wages and GDP say proponents
Taiwan News
Date: 2019/03/30
By: Central News Agency
(Photo by Pixabay user rawpixel)
TAIPEI (CNA) — A draft bill aimed at attracting foreign nationals to fill the workforce gap in Taiwan is likely to create more job opportunities, raise real wages and boost the domestic GDP, research by a local think tank indicated Saturday.
The New Economic Immigration Act, put forth by the National Development Council (NDC) and currently under review in the Legislature, could produce 5,000 new jobs, raise average real wages (wages adjusted for inflation) by 0.623 percent, and boost the country’s GDP by 0.041 percent, a report by the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER) showed.
The NDC is hoping that the draft bill, which targets people with intermediate skill levels such as technicians and personal health care workers, could address the shortage in those fields in Taiwan.
Government statistics show that in 2017, Taiwan had a labor shortage of 218,000 workers, with 55 percent of the positions being for mid-level technicians, mainly in the manufacturing sector. [FULL STORY]
