Ministry of National Defense to Revive Reserve Officer and NCO Examinations Next Year to Address Declining Birth Rate

Due to the impact of the declining birth rate on the labor structure, the military is also facing a shortage of young and able-bodied manpower and challenges in recruiting talent from the private sector. On August 8th, Minister of National Defense Gu Lixiong answered questions in the Legislative Yuan regarding the 'Military Manpower Resource Policy and Future Response Plans Under the Impact of the Declining Birth Rate' and confirmed that, in order to improve the shortage of junior officers and NCOs in the frontline troops, considering that the duration of compulsory military service has been changed to one year and that conscripts receive complete training, the Ministry of National Defense is considering resuming the reserve officer and NCO examinations next year to address the decrease in the number of eligible men for conscription and the difficulty in recruiting volunteers. Democratic Progressive Party legislator Chen Junyu asked during questioning how the Ministry of National Defense plans to strengthen the current recruitment policy and facilities, and enhance the willingness to serve in the military, and improve the effectiveness of recruiting Generation Z youth to serve in the military in response to the impact of the declining birth rate and the different attitudes of young people towards military service. Gu Lixiong responded that the Ministry of National Defense will still set a target number for recruitment based on the number of eligible men for conscription. There are several directions, the first being to increase the number of cadets, with this year's cadet admissions exceeding 100%, which seems to be effective; the second is to provide a certain attractiveness to young people in society who are currently serving in compulsory military service, so that they can adapt to the tasks of the troops, and the military will conduct recruitment. Gu Lixiong frankly admitted that after the number of eligible men for conscription decreased, it is indeed difficult to recruit, and at that time, the one-year compulsory military service was changed from four months to one year. The advantage of one-year compulsory military service is that it can obtain complete training from basic training, station training, base training, to the verification of joint operations capabilities; therefore, the Ministry of National Defense will also prepare to resume the reserve officer examinations next year, 'like me in the past, I was a reserve officer, and after graduating from university, I took the reserve officer examination, and we will also hold it again next year (reserve officer examination)'. Gu Lixiong pointed out that the current situation of the troops is that 'our junior officers and NCOs in the frontline are relatively short, so since they have received sufficient training, I think we can open the reserve officer and NCO examinations.'