National Development Council aims to loosen the financial regulations for Gold Card holders and foreign professionals in Taiwan
The National Development Council has received feedback regarding the difficulties that foreign professionals face when applying for banking accounts and credit cards in Taiwan. To address this issue, the council plans to coordinate with four government-owned banks to provide specialized services, as a first step towards improvement.
On March 20th, the minister of the National Development Council(NDC), Ming-Hsin Kung, gathers several key startup communities in Taiwan, including AAMA, AppWorks, Meet Global, Darwin Ventures, Garage+, Sparklabs Taiwan and Startup Island TAIWAN to discuss ways to improve Taiwan's startup ecosystem. The attending representatives provided many valuable opinions on funding injections, expanding overseas, talent introduction, and regulatory relaxation.
Minister Ming-Hsin Kung announces several measures to strengthen Taiwan's startup environment for attracting foreign professionals and to strengthen Taiwan’s presence in oversea countries. To address the difficulty of foreign professionals applying for banking accounts in Taiwan, he will strengthen the coordination with four banks to provide specialized services. To expand overseas business opportunities for startups, he also announced that NDC will visit Tokyo and countries in the New Southbound Policy again this year to enhance bilateral exchanges
To address the difficulty of foreign professionals applying for banking accounts in Taiwan, Minister Ming-Hsin Kung will strengthen the coordination with four banks to provide specialized services. / Photograph : Robert Kneschke via shutterstock
For the "COVID-19 Impact Startup Equity Investment Special Project" launched by the National Development Fund(NDF) in 2020, Minister Ming-Hsin Kung hopes NDF to refer other departments’ relief loan mechanisms, and let startups extend the payment deadline.
Trying to solve the banking problems for foreign professionals
The attending representatives from startup communities also emphasize the importance of attracting global talents. NDC responds that they are aware and will try to implement more measures to make Taiwan friendlier to foreign professionals.
NDC is working with government-owned banks, Taiwan Bank, First Bank, Mega Bank, and Hua Nan Bank, to help Employment Gold Card holders in applying for credit cards. / Photograph : Gold Card Official Website
NDC is working with government-owned banks, Taiwan Bank, First Bank, Mega Bank, and Hua Nan Bank, to help Employment Gold Card holders in applying for credit cards. Not only has a bilingual service section been set up on the website for Employment Gold Card holders, but also 24-hour customer service hotline has been provided. In addition, the Financial Supervisory Commission has also sent a letter to the Bankers Association urging banks to actively improve their bilingual services.
As of the end of December 2022, 23 banks have set up 827 bilingual branches, providing first-line bilingual service counters and bilingual financial services, which is a 3.8-fold increase from the 172 branches set up by 18 banks at the end of December 2020.
Minister Ming-Hsin Kung also plans to extend the service provided by the Employment Gold Card to foreign professionals.
〔Original :Meet Global〕
https://meet-global.bnext.com.tw/articles/view/47892