Finding, keeping talent key to success

Taiwan must seek overseas talent to bridge domestic employment gaps, as an aging society and smaller population make it challenging to expand a shrinking labor pool. The issue is particularly urgent for semiconductor and electronics companies, as skilled workers and researchers are crucial for safeguarding their technology leadership in the next 10 years. However, regulatory hurdles such as conservative immigration laws are slowing down businesses’ ability to acquire highly skilled foreign professionals. Outdated immigration rules are out of step with a global trend of seeking the best talent to enhance local industries’ competitiveness.

Singapore has introduced foreign skilled workers to help grow its industries and economy, and Japan has followed suit, announcing that it would more than double the number of foreigners eligible for skilled worker visas in the next five years, starting this fiscal year, the Nikkei Asia reported last month. A total of 800,000 new visas are to be issued through a special worker program, the report said.

As of the end of last year, only 8,121 visas have been granted to foreigners with special skills under Taiwan’s Employment Gold Card program, launched in 2018, National Development Council data showed. That figure is insignificant compared with the massive talent gap local businesses face. That number also does not factor in gold card holders who have left for countries offering better salaries. In November last year, the council launched the Talent Taiwan initiative, with an ambitious goal of attracting 70,000 foreign skilled workers by 2030. No details were disclosed.

Based on a revised immigration law, skilled professionals are required to live in Taiwan an average of 183 days within a five-year period to obtain permanent residency. That is a high bar, as most foreign workers travel between countries for jobs or other reasons. Local businesses consider those rigid rules an obstacle to attracting skilled professionals.

Wistron Corp chairman Simon Lin (林憲銘) has urged the government to be more open to easing immigration rules for foreign workers. The nation’s tech industry is facing major talent shortages due to its expansion in scale and its crucial status in the world’s supply chain, he said. Revenue at Wistron, a major supplier of artificial intelligence servers powered by Nvidia Corp, has soared to US$30 billion from US$1 billion 40 years ago, he said.

Without skilled foreign workers, it is almost impossible to bridge the massive local talent gap. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) plans to hire 6,000 new engineers this year, similar to the past few years. However, the rapid rise in demand for talent is in stark contrast to a constant decline in the number of science, technology, engineering and mathematics graduates over the past few years.

To expand its talent pool, TSMC offers scholarships of NT$500,000 each year for students working on a doctorate. It last year more than doubled the number of students it would support to 40 or 50, the chipmaker said. TSMC has also collaborated with local junior-high schools to encourage students to study in semiconductor-related programs. To cope with its global footprint, the chipmaker has also installed hundreds of workers in the US and Japan.

The National Science and Technology Council has adopted a different approach. It plans to open its first overseas IC design training center in Prague in September. The center is part of the council’s 10-year Taiwan Chip-based Industrial Innovation Program to cultivate about 100 international specialists in the initial phase, it said.

The most effective way, as most local businesses believe, would be to bring those skilled professionals to Taiwan and offer strong incentives for them to stay. That requires bolder and more open immigration and foreign talent acquisition rules.