Myanmar agricultural migrant workers will be opened up, and the Council of Agriculture is arranging pre-employment training in language and skills.
The Ministry of Labor plans to open Taiwan to Myanmar agricultural workers as early as May, using a small-scale pilot project to bring in 100 to 200 people. The Council of Agriculture said that it had previously submitted an application to the Ministry of Labor for agricultural foreign workers, and that the categories of industries to be opened can only be confirmed after the review results of the Cross-National Labor Force Policy Consultation and Advisory Group, and that if opened in the future, pre-employment training in language and skills will be arranged to help Myanmar agricultural foreign workers adapt to the needs of Taiwan's agriculture.
Lin Xuyang, a rice seedling grower who was once invited to Myanmar to plan a rice demonstration field, believes that Myanmar farmers are generally very dedicated, and that after pre-employment training in language and skills they can start work, and he looks forward to opening up more Myanmar agricultural foreign workers to solve Taiwan's agricultural labor shortage.
Ministry of Labor plans to open up 100 to 200 Myanmar foreign workers
Liu Jiajun, Director-General of the Workforce Development Agency of the Ministry of Labor, said yesterday (3/9) in an interview with the media at the Legislative Yuan that the Ministry of Labor will open up 100 to 200 Myanmar foreign workers through a special project, to be brought in as early as May. According to Ministry of Labor statistics, the number of foreign workers in Taiwan is about 550,000, mainly in manufacturing and home care, with no agricultural foreign workers; if Myanmar agricultural foreign workers are confirmed to come to Taiwan, they will be the first wave of agricultural foreign workers brought into Taiwan.
Zhang Zhisheng, Director of the Counseling Division of the Council of Agriculture, said that the Council of Agriculture had previously applied to the Ministry of Labor to open up agricultural foreign workers, and the projects expected to be opened include slaughterhouses, livestock farming, tea, fruit trees, orchids, mushrooms, etc., and that the review progress must wait for notification from the Ministry of Labor's Cross-National Labor Force Policy Consultation and Advisory Group, after which the categories of industries to be opened can be confirmed.
Council of Agriculture will arrange pre-employment training to help agricultural foreign workers adapt to Taiwan's agricultural needs
Zhang Zhisheng said that Taiwan has brought in foreign workers for many years and already has relevant training operation models, and that if Myanmar agricultural foreign workers are brought in in the future, there will be relevant pre-employment training to help Myanmar agricultural foreign workers adapt in language and skills to the needs of Taiwan's agriculture.
Hu Xinghua, Chairman of the Rural Development Foundation, previously went to Myanmar to discuss agricultural cooperation plans with Myanmar officials. He believes that Myanmar is rich in human resources but has relatively low wage levels, so it hopes for demand for labor dispatch to other countries, while Taiwan lacks agricultural manpower, so Taiwan and Myanmar have room for cooperation.
Hu Xinghua said that Taiwan's tea industry harvests in the same season, so the demand for manual harvesting is high, and industries such as slaughtering are not easy to find manpower in Taiwan, so these industries can consider bringing in Myanmar agricultural foreign workers; however, he also stressed the need to avoid affecting the employment opportunities of local Taiwanese farmers because of bringing in agricultural foreign workers.
Seedling grower: looking forward to bringing in agricultural foreign workers to fill the rural manpower gap
Lin Xuyang, a rice seedling grower who was once invited to Myanmar to plan a rice demonstration field, has practical experience of contact with Myanmar farmers. He said that Myanmar farmers generally do not understand Mandarin or Taiwanese, are also not very familiar with English, and that local agricultural technology development is not as rich as Taiwan's, but that local farmers are generally very dedicated to learning and can accept suggestions for improvement.
Regarding Taiwan's agricultural labor shortage, Lin Xuyang took the seedling industry as an example and said that the manpower shortage problem is really "a headache", that Taiwan has over a thousand seedling farms, and that on average each seedling farm needs three to four agricultural foreign workers, and he looks forward to bringing in Myanmar agricultural foreign workers in the future to fill the rural manpower gap.
Council of Agriculture: there are still details to be communicated, it is impossible to open up in May
However, in the evening, Council of Agriculture Minister Chen Baoji said in an interview with the Central News Agency that it is impossible to open up the bringing in of agricultural foreign workers in May, and that there are still many detailed operations being discussed and communicated before the policy is launched.
