Taiwan refutes reports saying it is hiring 1 lakh Indian workers: ‘inaccurate news… negotiation ongoing’

Days after several reports cited that Taiwan may hire 100,000 workers from India, Taiwanese Labor Minister Hsu Ming-chun said that the news is ‘inaccurate’. However, she admitted that the two countries are in talks but have yet to finalize the matter. 

A Bloomberg report last week said, India is forging closer economic ties with Taiwan with a plan to send tens of thousands of workers to the island as early as next month.

The report further cited that, people close to the development said, these 100,000 Indians would be hired to work at factories, farms and hospitals. 

“The two sides are expected to sign an employment mobility agreement by as early as December.” 

However, Hsu says that reports suggesting the entry of 100,000 Indian migrant workers are inaccurate. She says she suspects intentional manipulation of figures to spread misinformation and create unwarranted panic.

Hsu added that negotiations regarding the number of migrant workers to be accepted are still ongoing

Last week, Arindam Bagchi, a spokesperson for India’s Ministry of External Affairs, in a similar note said, “The India-Taiwan jobs pact is now in the final stages of negotiation”

Taiwan’s aging society

Taiwan’s aging society means it needs more workers, while in India, the economy isn’t growing fast enough to create enough jobs for the millions of young people who enter the labor market every year. Taiwan is projected to become a “super aged” society by 2025 with elderly people forecast to make up for more than a fifth of the population.

However, the employment deal is likely to ramp up geopolitical tensions with China, which opposes any official exchange with Taiwan, a self-ruled island that Beijing claims as its own. China is separated from Taiwan by a narrow body of water and shares a Himalayan border with India. It’s also been India’s top source of imports for the past two decades.

(With agency inputs)