The plan to make Taiwan a bilingual country by 2030 is not just aimed at students, says Premier Lai. The plan to make Taiwan a bilingual country by 2030 is not just aimed at students, says Premier Lai. (CNA photo)

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) - The government’s plan to turn Taiwan into a bilingual country by 2030 is not just targeting students, but should make everybody work harder at studying English to raise the country’s competitiveness, Premier William Lai (賴清德) said Tuesday.

According to a news release from the government, Lai listened to a report on the policy presented by the National Development Council (NDC), while Thursday’s regular weekly Cabinet meeting would also focus on the subject.

The premier said the bilingual policy was a key government policy which each department needed to be promoting actively, the Central News Agency reported.

In the past, similar policies were all about examinations, but this time, the aim was to improve language ability, to raise productivity, and to approach the issue from the demand side rather than from the supply side, Lai said.

Ministers and their deputies needed to improve their English so they could immediately appear in the international media to present important announcements, CNA quoted the premier as saying.

As no special budget would be drawn up to support the measures, each ministry needed to use its funding in the right way to improve the English ability of its staff, he added.

Lai first set 2030 as the deadline last September, with the NDC entrusted with consulting major business associations, foreign chambers of commerce and local governments to discuss the necessary measures, according to CNA.