Taiwan needs 80,000 foreign workers

At least 80,000 job opportunities for foreign workers will be available in Taiwan, the Manila Economic and Cultural Office (MECO) and the Taipei Economic Cultural Office (TECO) have confirmed.

According to JP Soriano's report on "24 Oras" on Thursday, Taiwan needs factory workers and English teachers.

"We need more English teachers and many Filipinos already went to Taiwan to be English teachers," said TECO Representative Wallace Chow.

Applicants must be education graduates with a license to teach from the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC).

"For English teachers there, I think our teachers there get as high as P150,000," said MECO Chairman Silvestre Bello III.

The matter was discussed by the two countries when Taiwan formally donated 2,000 metric tons of rice to the Philippines.

TECO also downplayed Chinese President Xi Jinping latest pronouncement on Taiwan in which he declared that it is "inevitable" that the democratically governed state will reunify with China.

"Although they never renounced the use of force, that would be their last resort. I think they will try very hard to attract our people to agree to reunify with China, but I think the first step for them [is] maybe they should become a democratic country," said Chow.

Wage hike

Moreover, the monthly minimum wage in Taiwan has also been increased by almost P2,000, which makes at least P50,000 monthly.  

It is said that about 120,000 Filipino factory workers in will benefit from the wage increase in Taiwan.

“This means a lot to our overseas workers, especially the factory workers. We have around 120,000 of them in Taiwan, so I would like to thank the people of Taiwan and the government of Taiwan,” said Belo. — Sherylin Untalan/BM, GMA Integrated News