Labor Affairs Bureau, Taichung City Government, today(15th)「The Voice from Asean Competition and Thai-Myanmar Throwing Water Celebrations」was conducted at Asean Square. The event attracted many international workers and immigrant residents to join in and provided the local citizens to understand different cultures from the other countries to facilitate the people amalgamation. Mayor Chia-lung Lin participated in and sang Vietnam songs for the event so he won a lot of applauses of the international workers and immigrant residents there. He said, the Luchuan Canal aside the Asean Square was well renovated and brought a new face to the Asean Square so there would be more visitors would have fun there. We wish Taichung will get better and become everyone’s home.

The event was happened to be on the same day of the Thai-Myanmar Buddha Birthday Ceremony so Labor Affairs Bureau conducted these two events together and had the talent competition, throwing water and pop quiz etc. comprehensive activities on site. All the citizens, immigrant residents and international workers gathered together to share joys with each other. Mayor Lin has been there to enjoy the activities with everyone; moreover, he sang Vietnam lyrics with the winner of last Voice from Asean, Hon-luan Chen and the Director of Labor Affairs Bureau, Ho-ting Huang in chorus with a big applause from the audience. Mayor Lin attended the ceremony of bathing Buddha to bath Buddha with water and experience the Thai-Myanmar cultural custom of throwing water during the festival to bless the people by washing them out of the dusts.

「The beauty of rainbow is because of the multiple colors; the beauty of Taichung is because of the people of diversity sharing with each other!」Mayor Lin said, Voice Asean has been held for the third time, and we combined the throwing water festival together this year to allow the new immigrant residents and international workers to show their talents and diverse cultures. In addition, the Luchuan Canal aside the Asean Square has brought some new climates there after renovation. It’s getting more beautiful and more people would visit the Asean Square. After cleaning, the Asean Square has been cleaner than before and the shops surrounded were making good business as well. We hope we can make the new immigrant residents and international workers feel like at home here.

The officer of Labor Affairs Bureau indicated, the talent competition was classified into some different groups, including international worker group, business owners and immigrant residents etc. More than 40 contestants gathered together to show their excellent talents with great performances. There were pro bono services provided on site, policies advocacy and pop quiz arranged to embedded the educational information in the activities. Therefore, people can understand the international workers and immigrant residents related regulations more to secure the rights of their own. Also, Labor Affairs Bureau arranged many oral translator to translate in Vietnamese, Thai, Bahasa Indonesia and English for the new immigrant residents and international workers to ensure the event proceeding smoothly.