More job opportunities seen for Pinoys in Taiwan

TAIPEI, Taiwan – The Philippine government sees more work opportunities for Filipinos here with the inauguration today of Ma Ying-jeou into his second term as president.

Manila Economic and Cultural Office (MECO) in Taipei chairman Amadeo Perez said that since 2010, more Filipinos have managed to find employment here under President Ma’s administration.

“For his second term, I hope we could further improve the relations between the Philippines and Taiwan,” Perez yesterday told reporters from the Philippines invited to attend President Ma’s inauguration.

“Under President Ma, we were able to increase labor arrival here from the Philippines,” he said.

“During his time, somehow, he (President Ma) has opened the doors to Mainland China that accounts for 80 flights a day between Taiwan and Mainland China. Now the good effect of this (is) when the commerce is improving in Taiwan, they need more Filipino workers and that’s one of the advantages,” Perez said.

According to the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Manila, over a hundred thousand Filipinos are working here as nurses, domestic helpers and factory workers, among others.

“And during the time of President Ma, he was able to establish very good relations between Taiwan and Mainland China. We were able to increase labor arrival from 2010 by about 15 percent,” Perez added.

He noted that many companies here prefer Filipinos because they can speak and write fluently in English.

“The reason is our Filipino workers speak and write fluent English and that’s our advantage. When it comes to qualifications, our Filipino workers are priority because they are more intelligent and educated,” Perez said.

Perez, however, admitted that many Taiwanese families prefer domestic helpers from Indonesia and Malaysia because they speak and write Mandarin, the local language.

The MECO chairman said the Malaysian and Indonesian government are financing Mandarin language lessons for their people for six months to be able to get jobs as domestic helpers here.

“Malaysian and Indonesian were made to undergo Mandarin lessons for six months. Filipinos, meanwhile, have to do it on their own. That’s why most of the domestic helpers are Indonesians and Malaysians, they can speak and understand Mandarin so they can be easily understood by their employers,” he said.

“Our main competitors here are from Indonesia and Vietnam because the placement fees are being financed by their governments,” Perez further said.

“Most of the workers here from Vietnam and Malaysia are mostly domestic helpers while in our case, only 10 percent are domestic helpers and about 90 percent are factory workers,” he said.