Taiwan and India Make Progress to Welcome 1,000 Indian Workers

Taiwan and India have held their first working-level talks to formalize an agreement to welcome a batch of 1,000 Indian workers to Taiwan.

Transcript

00:00Taiwan's facing a major labor shortage.

00:04The labor ministry says the shortfall of low- and mid-level skilled workers is especially

00:09severe, with the manufacturing sector facing acute shortages.

00:14Last week, Taiwan and India held their first working-level talks to discuss a new labor

00:19agreement meant to address the gaps in Taiwan's workforce.

00:23We expect that the program will begin in a phased and incremental manner.

00:29That means that we will see about 1,000 workers from India in the first batch.

00:36And we expect these workers to be employed in the manufacturing sector.

00:40In February, Taiwan and India signed a memorandum of understanding, paving the way for talks

00:46to bring in workers from India.

00:49Most of them will be recruited through the labor brokers, a process both sides will verify.

00:55It may take a year for the two sides to finalize the details.

00:59But even before the formal talks open, the agreement faced a controversy after a news

01:04article last year claimed that 100,000 Indian workers would arrive in Taiwan.

01:10That sparked a small-scale protest and became the target of an online disinformation campaign

01:15by China.

01:18Taiwan Plus has learned that the reported 100,000 figure was misleading and there was

01:23no formal agreement on the number of workers at the time.

01:27Having overcome initial hurdles, both sides are now confident about sealing the deal.

01:31The government of Taiwan has to address the worries from the society, to be honest.

01:37Because Taiwanese people actually have not been in close contact with the Indian society,

01:43so they don't quite understand the society.

01:46So what the information they got from the media actually is quite biased.

01:52So I think this is a good try to open up for 1,000 Indian migrant workers to come here,

02:00especially in what we call the traditional sectors of manufacturing, so that the Taiwanese

02:06people can know them more.

02:08Both sides are now moving forward to welcome the first batch of workers from India and

02:13help keep Taiwan's economy running.

02:15Adil Brar and Hank Hsu for Taiwan Plus.