Taiwan is currently facing the impact of globalization, and the mode of worldwide competition is changing. To build up Taiwan's competitive advantages under these circumstances, in May 2002 the Executive Yuan included “Creating an English Living Environment” in the “Challenging 2008-National Development Key Plans,” and established and promulgated the “the Action Plan for Creating an English Living Environment,” where the Commission is held responsible for its overall planning, coordination and promotion. In March 2005, the Executive Yuan further amended the Action Plan, making its overall goals “to change the writing for public signs to Chinese-English, internationalize pictograms, and bilingual related websites by 2008, as well as provide internationalized living service, construct a professional talent introduction mechanism, and attract foreign nationals to stay in Taiwan to strengthen Taiwan's worldwide competitiveness.”

The amended Action Plan lists “living service” and “personnel training” as key points for promotion, where it proactively establishes an internationalized living service platform and a service network, reinforces integrated establishment of a bilingual environment and training of English talents for professional competencies, and sets up a level-by-level assessment mechanism. The Plan focuses on facility signs, service measures, English proficiency, bilingual websites, and R&D innovations, and promotes 9 implementation strategies as follows:

(1) establishing an internationalized living service platform,
(2) constructing a living service network for foreign nationals,
(3) reinforcing integrated establishment of a bilingual environment,
(4) bilingualizing government and private websites,
(5) producing and broadcasting English broadcasting and television programs,
(6) advancing English translation of central government laws and regulations,
(7) training English talents for relevant competencies,
(8) setting up a service mechanism to provide advice and guidance, and
(9) increasing participation of the public and reinforcing promotion an on-site learning.

To assess the overall execution performance of the Plan, the Commission selects “Statistics of Public and Private Institutions Awarded the Good English Living Environment Recognition Mark” and “Statistics of the Degree of Overall Satisfaction of Foreign nationals to the English Living Environment” as assessment indexes, and the historical execution performance are as follows:

Focuses of the work on creating an English living environment at the first phase include “adding English to signs” and “adding English to websites,” where in accordance with the promotion order of “first vision and then hearing, ” “first government and then private,” and “first central and then local,” central and local government agencies have gradually constructed 445,713 bilingual facility signs, published 8,829 bilingual publications and 3,598 bilingual forms, conducted 5,387 English training classes attended by 163,895 participants, established 6,125 bilingual website functional items, and accomplished 1,995 R&D innovation cases.

The second phase for creating an English living environment has been launched since 2005, which consists of 9 implementation strategies and 38 specific measures to be promoted and implemented by related cabinet-level agencies and local governments.

(1) Establishing an internationalized living service platform:

The government set up the “Tourism Advice Service Hotline” (0800-011-765 on May 1, 2004 to improve living service provided to foreign nationals; the government further set up the “International Community Service Hotline” (0800-024-111) on July 1, 2005 to provide foreign nationals with toll-free bilingual inquiry service that is available 24 hours a day and 7 days a week, of which the service scope encompasses 16 categories of related information and service, including visa, residency, entry and exit, working, education, taxation, medical care, health insurance, nursery, safety, housing , transportation, public utilities, religion, living, and emergency contact.

(2) Constructing a living service network for foreign nationals:

The Executive Yuan established the category of foreign language substitute civilian service in 2005, where it approved 150 substitute civilian servicemen to utilize their specialty in foreign nationals seeking civil service, English translation advice, and tour guidance and explanation, in order to assist local governments in creating an English environment. In 2005, the government also subsidized county and city governments for retaining foreign language volunteers that advise local agencies in English translation and providing directions for visitors.

(3) Reinforcing integrated establishment of a bilingual environment:

The government has amended 4 laws and established 9 regulations as follows: Commodity Labeling Act, Regulations Governing the Management of Advertisement Signboards and Erection of Advertisement, Regulations for Erecting Traffic Signage, and Regulations for Children of Offshore Elite Technology Talents to Come to Taiwan for Study; Guidelines of Using Chinese Phonetic Spelling, Principles of Translation the Name of Place, Search System for Geographical Names in the Taiwan Area, Online Geographical Name Translation and Writing System, Regulation for Chinese-English Translation of Nation-Wide Laws and Regulations, Reference Guidelines of Designing Popular Pictograms for Public Signs, Vocabulary of Internal Signs for Creating an English Environment, and Handbook of Popular Vocabulary for English Signs in Local Agencies and School. Following the above laws and regulations, all agencies assist local governments in improving the living and public infrastructure environment, as well as integrate bilingual signs, Tongyong spelling system, international pictograms, and landscape design, to create a living environment that meets international standards.

(4) Bilingualizing government and private websites:

The government sets up a mechanism dedicated to promotion and consultation for bilingual websites, reinforces advertisement and marketing, and advances integrated establishment of feature websites related to international organizations and thematic English websites of focus government agencies as follows: WTO (Ministry of Economic Affairs), WHO (Ministry of Health), Government Reform (Research, Development and Evaluation Commission), NGO/NPOs (Ministry of Foreign Affairs) Human Rights (Office of the President), R.O.C. National Statistics (Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics), R.O.C. Government English Portal Website (Government Information Office), International Community Service Website (Ministry of the Interior), R.O.C. Insurance and Banking Information Website (Ministry of Finance, Ihakka (Council for Hakka Affairs). English Thematic Website for Exploring Taiwan's Small and Medium Enterprises (Ministry of Economic Affairs), and English Portal Website for Taiwan 's Education and Academics (Ministry of Education)

(5) Producing English radio and TV programs:

The Overseas Chinese Affairs Commission retained TAIWAN Macroview TV to produce and broadcast 1,308 episodes of English news, as well as 165 episodes of news-magazine-type English talk shows, offering overseas Chinese with the most instant and updated worldwide news reports. The Government Information Office retained Formosa Television to produce and broadcast the English news program, totaling 964 sessions. To encourage mass media to produce and broadcast stations and 44 television channels producing and broadcasting English learning programs to provide citizens with opportunities to learn English.

(6) Advancing Chinese-English translation of central government laws and regulations:

According to the “Regulations for Chinese-English Translation of Nation-Wide Laws and Regulations” promulgated by the Executive Yuan, among the 605 laws and regulations under control of the Commission, all have been translated by December 2005.

(7) Training English talents for related competencies:

To encourage civil servants to learn English, the Executive Yuan ratified the “Measure for Improving English Proficiency of Civil Servants” and the “Specific Measures for Government Agencies to Encourage Civil Servants to Actively Learn English” With there measures used to integrate learning resources, enhance promotion and advertisement, and reinforce the motive to learn English, government agencies train up the elite for English learning, hold English learning and sharing symposiums, provide support in setting up English clubs and foreign affairs teams to help receive foreign guests and conduct foreign affairs. The number of positions in government agencies and schools that require English certification is expected to reach 16,000 and the percentage of civil servants that pass the General English Proficiency Test is expected to reach 50% by the end of 2007. In 2005, government agencies have conducted 5,378 English proficiency training classes attended by 163,467 participants. To promote the citizens' English proficiency, the Ministry of Education has consulted the “Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: Learning, Teaching, Assessment (CEF)” to construct the overall language proficiency ranking criterion of our country, and promotes participation of all citizens in the English proficiency test.

(8) Establishing a service mechanism to provide advice and consultation:

The Translation Consulting Service Team was established on June14, 2005, where the service hotline at 0800-885111 was set up to provide English translation advice and special onsite consulting, to review the bilingual glossary of government agencies, and to assist agencies and schools in constructing an internationalized living environment. The periodical survey of satisfaction of foreign nations has been continuously conducted, in order to assess the overall performance of Taiwan 's English environment. In 2005, the goal of the degree of satisfaction of foreign nations to Taiwan 's English living environment is 55% and the actual degree of satisfaction based on the survey is increasing.

(9) Increasing public participation and enhancing promotion and onsite learning:

The government established the “Assessment and Award Guidelines for the Quality English Living Environment,” promulgated the implementation project fro year 2005, and set up a level-by-level assessment mechanism, where 291 agencies participated in the assessment among which 33 were selected by 16 cabinet-level agencies to receive the Excellence Award after the first and second reviews. To increase social participation and enhance promotion and onsite learning, the Commission held a three-year “2005 English Environment Carnival,” where a thematic exhibition was held under the concept of Taiwan as a global village, to attract citizens to participate in creating an English environment.

(10) Milestones of the Creating an English Living Environment Project:

Milestones