1)
The labor ministry raised the minimum wage to NT$20,008 (US$670) per month. That's up from NT$19,273 (US$645.5). That's an increase of NT$735 (about US$25) or 3.8%. The minimum wage by the hour has been raised from NT$115 (US$3.85) to NT$120 (US$4.01).
The new minimum wage will be effective in July 2015 and is expected to benefit 1.4 million domestic employees.
The decision was made at a meeting on Friday by the minimum wage evaluation committee which has 21 members. The committee includes employees, employers, academics and government officials.
Labor minister Chen Hsiung-wen said that laborers and employers will establish working groups that will meet every season to discuss commodity prices and salaries.
2)
Taiwan and China are set to hold talks on a cross-strait trade in goods agreement on September 10. That’s the word from Deputy Economics Minister Cho Shih-chao on Thursday.
Cho did not reveal further details, but said that his ministry will do all it can to vie for conditions that will benefit Taiwanese businesses. The meeting will be held in Taiwan, but the exact location has yet to be confirmed.
Meanwhile, Economics Minister Woody Duh has said that industries to be covered in the talks will include automobiles, machine tools, petrochemicals and flat panels.
The talks will be the first of their kind in nearly five months. That’s despite a lack of progress on the review of a cross-strait trade in services agreement that was signed in June 2013.
3)
A Chinese surveillance aircraft was intercepted by Taiwanese fighter jets on Monday in Taiwan’s Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ).
In a routine press conference on Tuesday, Chief of Staff of Taiwan’s Air Force Combatant Command, Hsiung Hou-chi, said that the Chinese surveillance plane was detected twice on Monday. It was flying at an altitude of some 22,000 feet. He said both incidents lasted about ten minutes.
Hsiung said an unspecified number of Mirage 2000 fighter jets were dispatched to intercept and follow the Chinese aircraft as it left the zone in the morning. He also said Taiwanese-made IDF fighter jets were used in the afternoon intercept.