May 17, 2006
The Council for Economic Planning and Development (CEPD) said yesterday that the government has agreed in principle to lift restrictions that prevent foreign national students from serving short-term internships in Taiwan.
For many years, both the American Chamber of Commerce and the European Chamber of Commerce in Taipei have been lobbying the government to allow foreign students to come to Taiwan to serve short-term internships. Representatives from the chambers said that other countries in Asia, including South Korea, Singapore, and Hong Kong have already lifted restrictions on foreign student interns. The representatives also said that foreign businesses in Taiwan are at a disadvantage from the perspective of human resources because of the restrictions.
The representatives also pointed out that Taiwan's own research organizations also have the need for foreign student interns. The Taiwan government's traditional position has been that allowing foreign student interns would potentially threaten local students' work opportunities. Current regulations stipulate that, for a foreign national to work in Taiwan, a certain number of years must have passed since the person graduated from university or the person must have previous work experience.
CEPD Chairman Sheng Cheng Hu said that the related agencies have agreed to lift restrictions on applications for foreign student interns by companies and corporations, while expanding the regulations so as to allow companies, government-run companies and foreign companies to apply to hire foreign student interns.
[United Daily News]
E-mail this page.
Invest in Taiwan
