Taiwan should ease rules on foreign students working: Hotel executive

Taipei, Nov. 27 (CNA) Silks Hotel Group Chairman Steven Pan (潘思亮) urged the government on Tuesday to ease the rules on foreign students and foreign interns working in Taiwan.

Pan, who is also a board member of the Taipei-based Chinese National Association of Industry and Commerce, suggested that doing so could help address a labor shortage in Taiwan's tourism industry.

Speaking to reporters after a meeting alongside other business leaders held by Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰), Pan suggested the government mirror the strategy adopted in recent years by Japan's late Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

Abe's policy positioned tourism as a growth engine, resulting in tourism becoming Japan's second-leading industry only after the automobile industry in terms of earning foreign trade surplus, Pan noted.

One of the policies adopted by Abe was allowing foreign students and interns to work in Japan for up to five years, Pan said.

The business leader, however, did not elaborate on his suggestions for how the government should relax work restrictions on foreign students and interns in Taiwan.

Under Taiwan's Employment Service Act, foreign students enrolled at universities in Taiwan may apply for a work permit allowing them to work up to 20 hours per week during study semesters and longer during summer and winter vacation periods.

However, language students enrolled on short term courses are not eligible to legally work in Taiwan.

In October, Taiwan's Ministry of Labor (MOL) published the results of a survey indicating the country faces a labor shortage resulting in 66,300 job vacancies.

The service sector faces a particularly acute labor shortage, accounting for 53.8 percent of those vacancies, the MOL said.