MANILA, Philippines -- Factories in Taiwan are slowing down operations due to cancelled orders from Western countries, but they are not shutting down, a recruiter of Filipino workers there said Tuesday.Therefore, the 100,000 or so Filipinos working in Taiwan will continue to do so although they will be spending shorter hours, particularly on overtime, said Jackson Gan, president of the Pilipino Manpower Agencies Accredited to Taiwan (Pilmat). Taiwan factory owners "intend to keep their Filipino workers on site and to just reduce overtime hours for some factories. Other companies may re-tool their production lines and concentrate on their other electronics products," Gan said, quoting his clients there. As a consequence, Gan said he expected dollar remittances from the OFWs in Taiwan to go down slightly by the end of this quarter. Last year, the OFWs in Taiwan remitted some $184 million. Gan said OFWs who comprised majority of the foreign workers in Taiwan continued to be well liked because they "spoke English with their superiors and were hard working all the time." Taiwan is one of the world's top producers of electronic products, such as personal computers, laptops, and other information technology products. |
