Taiwan to bring in 1,000 Indian workers for manufacturing

Taipei, Nov. 8 (CNA) Taiwan will bring in 1,000 Indian workers amid a labor shortage in the manufacturing sector, as part of an agreement signed between the two countries earlier this year, Ministry of Labor (MOL) official Tsai Meng-liang (蔡孟良) said Friday.

At a news conference, Tsai, who heads the ministry's Workforce Development Agency, said the decision to bring 1,000 Indian workers to Taiwan was made by Taiwanese and Indian officials handling labor affairs during a working-level meeting in Taipei on Nov. 5.

Also read: MOU caps Indian workers in Taiwan at 1,000 initially: Labor minister

It will be the first batch of Indian workers brought to Taiwan under the Memorandum of Understanding inked between the two governments in February.

However, Tsai said there is no fixed timeline as to when Indian workers will start coming to Taiwan to help alleviate the labor shortage in the manufacturing industry.

Labor Minister Ho Pei-shan (何佩珊) said in an interview in July that the ministry was aiming to make that happen in mid-2025.

Tsai, on the other hand, appeared to be less certain about the date, stressing that more issues, including procedures for recruiting and bringing in workers, remain to be discussed and finalized between the two sides.

"We of course hope for [the bringing in of Indian workers] to take place as soon as possible, but some basic groundwork still needs to be done," he said, adding that it took Japan about a year after it signed a similar deal with India to begin welcoming Indian workers.

According to the MOL, a five-member delegation led by Surinder Bhagat, joint secretary for overseas employment under the Indian Ministry of External Affairs, traveled to Taiwan on Nov. 4 and stayed until Friday to discuss related matters and learn about the work environment in Taiwan.

The two sides also agreed at the meeting that of the 1,000 workers to be brought into Taiwan, five percent -- or 50 workers -- would be hired directly, with the rest recruited through labor brokerages verified by both, Tsai said.

In response to reporters' questions about qualifications required of Indian workers, Tsai said no specifics beyond existing Taiwanese regulations on migrant workers had been finalized, but proficiency in the English language is preferred.

He also rejected concerns from some quarters of society about the potential risks to posed by Indian workers to Taiwanese society as "discrimination," noting that the crime rate in India is not higher than that of many developed countries.

Moreover, the crime rate among migrant workers in Taiwan is less than 50 percent that of Taiwanese citizens, he added.