Rethinking Recruitment of Foreign Talent

The only thing is, attracting people is a lot more complicated than opening to global financial and technology flows. Is Taiwan really up to the task?

In mid-August of this year, the Ministry of Economic Affairs' "2006 Taiwan Career Expo for Overseas Talents" got rolling again as representatives from a total of 35 companies and organizations went to the US and Canada to try to recruit professionals. This is the sixth straight year that the exposition has gone abroad.

Professionals are looking for people who recognize their skills. The winners in the next round of economic competition will be the nations that welcome and retain them.

Fresh troops

According to officials who went with the group, this program which was originally targeted especially at persons of Chinese ancestry (and especially Taiwanese emigrants) as the most likely candidates, this time drew many Americans and Canadians of other backgrounds.

"Perhaps this is because the outlook for the US economy is bleak, so you can sense that they really want to come over to Asia to develop their careers"-assuming they can get an attractive salary package. Yet even if these people are unable to adapt to their new environment, they could also serve as overseas personnel for Taiwanese firms as these firms globalize, helping them in widening networks of contacts, market development, technology transfer, and so on, thereby offering more ways to contribute to the firm.

The recruitment expo is just one of the government's many policies for attracting overseas professionals. Last year, a total of 271 high-level personnel were drawn to Taiwan through a variety of programs, which is quite a good result. This year everyone is being even more proactive. At the Industrial Technology Research Institute alone-Taiwan's main bastion of commercial R&D-62 new spots were opened in one fell swoop to foreign candidates. The only thing is, with so many foreigners just waiting to come to Asia to develop their careers, the government has nonetheless been cutting the budget year after year, so that recruitment cannot be expanded. The only alternative is to go back to market forces, and encourage companies not to miss the current window of opportunity.

It is certainly a novel opportunity for so much foreign talent to be moving to Asia, in contrast to the past when the main approach was to try to recruit skilled Taiwanese who had emigrated to come back to Taiwan to work.

Now if people of Chinese ancestry want to return home, whether it be due to a psychological attachment to "Greater China" or for practical reasons involving salary and reputation, the inducements of Taiwan simply cannot match those of Hong Kong and mainland China. Moreover, in the last 20 years fewer Taiwanese have been going abroad to get their doctorates, and these have scattered themselves more widely in terms of both subject matter and geography, so it has become harder to use the old networks of "classmates" and "coworkers" to recruit people. And there are some new areas, such as polymer nanotechnology and synchrotron radiation, in which it is very difficult to get around the problem of inadequate manpower no matter what you try.

Immigration blues

One blind spot for Taiwan in recruiting foreign professionals is that it has been easy to be allowed to work in Taiwan, but very difficult to get permission to live in Taiwan long-term.

Generally speaking, the government, operating from the viewpoint of economic development, wants to encourage companies to bring in talented people from abroad. But should these people be allowed to go from "settling in to work" to "setting down roots to live"? There are many considerations, including national security, population density, lost work opportunities for local people, and the capacity of the education and social welfare systems.

In this respect Taiwan has been considered "less than friendly." For example, Article 25 of the Immigration Act stipulates that foreigners must enjoy legal residence in Taiwan for five continuous years, and be in the country for at least 183 days per year, in order to be allowed to apply for permanent residence. Moreover, you must renew your legal residence annually, and if you happen to be out of the country when it comes time for renewal, or you forget and are late by even one day... sorry, but all your previously accumulated legal residence time is wiped away and the five-year count has to start all over from scratch! Although there is a proviso excepting "persons with technology skills needed by the country," there are few precedents in practice, and this provision is very difficult to make use of.

The problem of attracting foreign workers is further complicated by sharply declining birth rates and aging of populations that have caused many countries to relax restrictions on foreign workers or immigrants. Last July the Council for Economic Planning and Development proposed a target of attracting 1 million investors or specialists from abroad by the year 2050. Amendments to the Immigration Act, passed into law on August 1 of his year, are a big step in making Taiwan more competitive in this respect

Opening the door to foreign talent

In fact, linking recruitment of foreign talent with residence and immigration policies is one of the reasons why Singapore and Hong Kong are winning the head-hunting competition.

In Singapore, a white-collar foreigner with a university degree and a special technical skill employed by a local company need only get an Employment Pass, then he or she can immediately apply to the immigration authorities for permanent residence (PR). It usually takes only about three to six months for approval. Once you have your PR, you can apply to rent state housing (those with a spouse can buy directly), your children are entitled to attend local schools, your spouse and any children under 21 can also directly seek PR, and parents can apply for a "Dependent Pass." After two years with PR, you can fill out the forms to become a citizen. With this kind of openness, it's no wonder that high-tech immigrants are constituting a rapidly increasing percentage of the population in Singapore, growing from 3.6% in 1990 to 7.2% in 2000.

In South Korea, to take another example, roots begin to be set as early as university. The ROK Ministry of Education has developed a program to attract 50,000 foreign students within ten years and is positioning itself as "the manpower development center of Asia." South Korea is also displaying its respect for skilled manpower from abroad by offering extended residence under the "gold card" system.

It's also worth noting that both Singapore and Korea offer a five-year tax break to foreign white-collar workers, whereas Taiwan taxes resident foreigners at the same rate as local citizens, but taxes non-resident foreigners at a standard rate of 20% no matter what their level of income, which is higher than the level for most ROC citizens.

Overlooking local talent?

There is of course more than one side to every story. Recruiting foreign professionals is indeed important, and will be a key to future national competitiveness. But it is weird nonetheless that the unemployment rate among ROC citizens with university degrees or above is 5.26%. This is partly due to the rapid increase in the number of universities in Taiwan, so that lower-end students with BA degrees are not actually very qualified, and it is also partly connected to the lack of fit between the types of specialties being supplied by the university system and those demanded by industry. In any case, a solution is rapidly needed to the awkward problem of foreign talent being able to pick and choose whereas local kids sit idle. This is clearly not of long-term benefit to our society.

But how can local professionals get up to speed? As Professor Lee Chia-tung has written, "Talent is developed through challenging experiences." He has had many students from Taiwan's best schools enter high-tech industry with decent salaries, but all with a common complaint: the work is too simple. Li says that in terms of natural talent or aquired learning, Taiwanese students give nothing away to their counterparts from the best schools in other lands. "But after they enter the work environment, the gap between them begins to grow ever wider."

The reason is that Taiwanese companies aim for short-term profits. For example, if they need a certain kind of IC design, nine times out of ten they will just buy the rights to one from abroad, and their in-house engineers have nothing to do but use the acquired IC like a black box.

"If we use prefab ICs for ten years, while someone else has been applying their brainpower to design for ten years, who is going to come out stronger?" Li reminds us, "If we want to attract foreign talent, we first have to create a highly challenging work environment." Otherwise, people at the cutting edge will simply no longer remain at the cutting edge. On the other hand, if the government were to subsidize some demanding R&D or production programs, foreign experts "would come on their own without waiting to be invited."

In the end, what matters most, for both foreign and domestic people of ability, is that people are content in their work, and feel that their talents are being put to good use; then the country will be able to stand up to anything.