The Official Launch of the First Multi-functional
Service Website and Hotline in the World.
Represents a Milestone in Our Country’s Efforts to
Create an Internationally Friendly Living Environment.
The International Community Service Website and Hotline 0800-024-111, designed to provide “daily living” services to foreigners living in Taiwan, is officially launched by Mr. Wu Rong-Yi, Deputy Premier of the Executive Yuan, Mr. Hsu Chia-Chuan, Minister of the Ministry of the Interior, and other high-level government officials on August 1. The launch of the website and hotline also represents a new milestone in our country’s globalization efforts.
Deputy Premier Wu said in his speech that, as Taiwan is an island with limited natural resources, economy is the country’s main lifeline and is vital for Taiwan’s existence and development. Creating an internationally friendly environment and keeping pace with global developments is the only way that allows Taiwan to gain a foothold in the world. In response to this challenge, the Executive Yuan included the “Creating an English-friendly Living Environment” as a “Challenge 2008: National Development Plan” in 2002, promulgated the “Action Plan for Creating an English-friendly Living Environment”, and completed bilingual environmental infrastructure including the establishment of construction guidelines. The Executive Yuan completed various incentive and security programs for the recruitment of high-technology professionals and foreign labor, and in response to the increased in the number of foreign spouses moving to Taiwan. However, there is still a lack of English public information, daily living service platform and service network for foreigners living in Taiwan. Hence, foreigners encounter many inconveniences in their daily lives due to language and cultural barriers.
Deputy Premier Wu emphasized that the government pay much attention to this situation. President Chen gave the following directives on May 29, 2004: “For sustainable development, Taiwan must look towards the world. We must improve the overall language proficiency of our citizens and provide a diversified, internationally friendly living environment for foreigners living and working in Taiwan.” Following Taiwan’s WTO entry, The European Chamber of Commerce urged our government to place more importance on the building of an English-friendly environment and provision of English public information. The Research, Development and Evaluation Commission of the Executive Yuan and the National Police Agency of the Ministry of the Interior jointly planned and established the International Community Service Website and Hotline on July 1, 2005 with technological assistance from Chunghwa Telecom. This website and hotline is one of the key achievements in our government efforts to create an English-friendly environment. The website and hotline can help foreigners living in Taiwan to solve daily living problems anytime, anywhere. To allow more foreigners to learn about this website and hotline, Deputy Premier Wu also stressed the importance of publicity and marketing efforts and hope that government agencies involved in external affairs can communicate this information through different channels to their foreign counterparts.
In addition, to allow the public to gain a better understanding of the service website and hotline, Minster Yeh of the Research, Development and Evaluation Commission of the Executive Yuan gave a detailed introduction to the website and hotline during the ceremony. Minister Yeh said that this website and hotline is the first of its kind in the world. The website and hotline offers 16 different daily living services including visa applications, residency, entry and exit issues, employment, education, taxation, medical services, health insurance, childcare, security, housing, transportation, public utilities, religions, daily living and emergency contacts to meet the needs of foreigners living in Taiwan. For inquiries that cannot be answered fully or involved other issues, information that cannot be retrieved from the knowledge database, suggestions, and complaints, the call center staff will inform the responsible agency to respond within 3 working days. Service quality is maintained throughout the entire process by strict control measures. In this way, foreigners can enjoy similar services just like in their home countries even if they do not know the Chinese language.
Foreigners and our citizens are welcome to log on to www.iff.npa.gov.tw or contact our service hotline at 0800-024-111 for any daily living questions. Our call center staff will be available to provide 24-hour information service year round to callers throughout the country.