Ministry of Interior to expand options for alternative military service

This article was published by the Taiwan Headlines on February 24, 2006. It reports that Taiwan's Executive Yuan recently passed an amendment to the Substitute Service act, which includes "research development assistant service" as an option for those yet to serve the mandatory military service.

Once the amendment is approved by the Legislative Yuan, overseas Taiwanese men with master's degrees and above in science or engineering will be able to work in Taiwan for 16 months to four years as a substitution to regular military service. These men will also be exempt from an Immigration Law regulation that stipulates those without permanent residency status must exit the country every four months.

The "research development assistant service" will be an improvement of the current national defense reserve training service, which is a popular substitute service option among local science and engineering graduate students.

Currently, some 3,000 Taiwanese men with master or doctorate degrees are serving the country in the form of national defense reserve training service. The Ministry of Interior is considering an annual increase of the number of persons accepted for the substitution service.