Development Blogs.com

from the Taipei Times It’s time for the government to rethink its social security and immigration policy as the nation faces challenges such as “new poverty” and an increasing flow of immigrants through marriage, academics specializing in labor, social welfare and immigration issues told a forum in Taipei yesterday.Wang Yung-tzu, a professor at National Taiwan Normal University’s (NTNU) Graduate Institute of Social work, pointed out that while poverty has always existed in Taiwan, rapid urbanization and interconnection in people’s economic lives have created a “new poverty” that needs to be dealt with differently.“In the rapidly changing economic environment, people have developed different ideas on who is responsible for poverty,” Wang told the forum, which was...

from The Taipei TimesBy Max HirschThe number of families living below the poverty line nationwide has skyrocketed to nearly 90,000, a new high since 1981 when figures were first compiled, the Ministry of the Interior said.This year's figure of 86,700 low-income households nationwide marks a 4.29 percent increase in the number of poor families over 2005, the ministry said in a press release yesterday.The 86,700 low-income households were home to 211,975 people, the release added.The ministry's Department of Social Affairs spokesman Chen Chi-hsun (陳其勛) said in a telephone interview yesterday that the poverty line is defined as 60 percent of the average national monthly expenditure per family recorded in the previous year, with some qualifications factored in relating to ownership of...

from Yahoo News Approximately 75 per cent of office workers in Taiwan are living in poverty, with many in debt because of decreasing earnings and rising consumer prices, according to the results of a survey released Tuesday by an online part-time and outsourced staffing service.A total of 36 per cent of workers surveyed by the Jcase job Website said they are "very poor, " with another 38 per cent saying they are "poor." While 22 per cent of respondents think their financial status is "average, " only 3.4 per cent said they are well-to-do or quite wealthy.As many as 43 per cent of respondents attributed their poverty to their limited, even decreasing, income. Other reasons mentioned by those polled include the large number of expenses they have to cover and soaring consumer prices.Asked...

The new and updated edition of the Digital Review of Asia Pacific contains authoritative reports on how 29 economies/countries are using ICT in business, government and civil society written by senior authors who live and work in the region. Included are three subregional chapters on the Pacific Island States, ASEAN and APEC....