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One of the top stories from this past week was that Taiwan and China signed two agreements: one on preventing double taxation, and the other on aviation security.
The agreements were inked on Tuesday during the 11th round of high-level cross-strait talks, which took place in the Chinese city of Fuzhou.
Taiwan’s top envoy, Lin Join-sane, said on Tuesday that the two sides also exchanged views on Chinese tourists making transit stops in Taiwan.
Lin is the chairman of the Straits Exchange Foundation, a semi-official organization in charge of cross-strait exchanges in the absence of official ties.
Lin said he hopes that agreements on trade in goods, environmental protection, solutions to disputes and setting up representative offices will be signed in the 12th round of talks.
2)
Also this past week, Taiwan’s stock index had a rough week, hitting a low point of 7,203 on Monday, but then recovering 816 points by Friday to return above the 8000 point mark.
The National Stabilization Fund was authorized to step in and stabilize the stock market on Monday, helping the market recover.
On Friday, the head of the Financial Supervisory Commission William Tseng said the intervention of the National Stabilization Fund had successfully provided a boost to market confidence. However, he did not say when the government will lift a ban on short selling stocks at less than the previous day’s closing prices.
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And finally, this past week, Taiwan raised the monthly wage for migrant domestic workers to NT$17,000 (US$520).
The Ministry of Labor and officials from Thailand, Vietnam, the Philippines, and Indonesia reached a consensus on the wage increase on Friday. The amount will be a 7% increase from the monthly wage, which had been frozen for 18 years.