Taiwan is planning to import labor from Myanmar to fill a shortage in workers. That’s the word from the labor ministry on Monday.
Taiwan currently employs over 550,000 migrant workers from Vietnam, the Philippines, Thailand, and Indonesia. But the Indonesian government has pledged to stop sending workers abroad by 2017.
Taiwan labor official Liu Chia-chun says that to fill the gap, the ministry will begin a pilot program to import labor from Myanmar.
“We will start small with 100 or 200 workers, because this is a new country that we’re working with," said Liu. "If the pilot program proves successful, we’ll start hiring more workers from Myanmar. A lot of Taiwanese businesspeople are thinking about investing in Myanmar, so importing Burmese workers to Taiwan could be a good start for employers and employees to get to know each other.”
Meanwhile, Taiwan is also considering lifting a ban on Vietnamese workers. Vietnamese laborers once formed the largest group of migrant workers in Taiwan. But in 2004, an increase in runaway workers prompted the government to put a ban on Vietnamese domestic caretakers and workers in the fishing industry.
The labor ministry said the government is also considering importing labor from Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.