Taiwan and India signed an agreement on Friday to bring in Indian migrant workers to the island. Taiwan’s Ministry of Labour said the memorandum of understanding had been signed between each other’s de facto embassies in Taipei and Delhi, but implementation details will still need to be worked out.
According to Taiwan News, a memorandum of understanding on labor cooperation was signed between the Taipei Economic, Cultural Center in India and the India Taipei Association via video conferencing.
The deal came when labour-strained Taipei seeks to expand its foreign workforce beyond its traditional source countries of Southeast Asia, Reuters reported. Meanwhile, local media reports said Taiwan seeks to hire more Indian workers to address labour shortages in the manufacturing, construction, agriculture, and fishery industries.
Taiwan is a major semiconductor producer but with an ageing society. It island nation hosts to around 700,000 migrant workers who come mostly from Vietnam, Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand. Many of them reportedly work in either in manufacturing or as home helpers for the elderly.
Taiwan’s Ministry of Labour said demand for workers in Taiwan for manufacturing, construction, agriculture and other industries has continued to expand which Taiwan is unable to fulfil itself, so demand for migrant workers has increased year by year.
The quality of Indian labour is stable, they are hard working and well considered,” the ministry said. “A small-scale pilot scheme will start first, and if that goes well, more Indian workers will be allowed in,” it added. The ministry, however, didn’t mention how many workers may eventually come.
Taiwan Representative to India Baushuan Ger had met with the Chief Minister of Mizoram, Lalduhoma on Feb. 12. Ger said on X that the “fruitful” meeting included talks on labor mobility, education, and agricultural cooperation. “Exciting opportunities ahead!”
Indian Minister of State for External Affairs Muraleedharan had said in December last year, “Government facilitates and promotes interactions in areas of trade, investment, tourism, culture, education and other such people-to-people exchanges with Taiwan.”
Muraleedharan had informed the Lok Sabha that the Labor and Manpower Cooperation MOUs/Agreements, “that provide the overarching framework for cooperation on labour and manpower related issues”, have been signed with the Gulf Cooperation Council countries (Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and United Arab Emirates) and Jordan.
“Further, to safeguard the specific interest of domestic workers in GCC Countries, agreements on Labor Cooperation for Domestic Sector have been signed with Saudi Arabia, UAE and Kuwait. Specific Labour Mobility Partnership Agreement/MOU/MOC have been signed with Denmark, Japan, Portugal, Mauritius and Israel,” Muraleedharan had said.
“Migration and Mobility Partnership agreements to facilitate mobility for our students, academics, business people, and professionals, have been signed with France, UK, Germany, Australia, Austria and Italy,” he added.
India, like most countries, has no formal ties with Chinese-claimed Taiwan, but there is a close business relationship with India wanting to encourage more Taiwanese tech companies to invest and manufacture in India.
India also has a difficult relationship with China, especially over their disputed shared border.