U.S. and Taiwan hold first-ever Talent Circulation Summit

Taipei, Nov. 5 (CNA) The first-ever Talent Circulation Summit co-organized by the United States and Taiwan was held in Taipei on Tuesday to discuss ways to develop and internationalize Taiwan's workforce for the digital age.

The one-day summit, a flagship event of the American Institute in Taiwan's (AIT) Talent Circulation Alliance (TCA), was attended by nearly 1,000 young professionals, human resources officers, business executives, academics, policy makers, entrepreneurs, and students.

"Our Talent Circulation Summit will bring together all of the TCA stakeholders to explore the latest talent exchange, cultivation, and networking opportunities," said Brent Christensen, director of the AIT's Taipei office, during his opening remarks.

The TCA is a public-private partnership that makes it easier for talent to circulate between Taiwan and like-minded partners, with the goal of cultivating a deep pool of capable, internationally integrated and digitally savvy professionals, according to the AIT.

Christensen said the four objectives of the TCA are to recreate Taiwan's success story for the digital age, to prevent brain drain in Taiwan, to grow Taiwan's talent, and to expand Taiwan's international presence.

"We ask you to view the TCA as a platform upon which you can build your own talent circulation platforms and projects; think of it as the AppStore of talent circulation where you can realize your ideas," Christensen said.

The summit's keynote speaker Morris Chang (張忠謀), the retired founder of chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC), shared his own talent circulation story.

"I myself am a beneficiary of talent circulation," said Chang, who finished his college education in the U.S. and worked for decades at different U.S. companies, including Texas Instruments, before returning to Taiwan.

"I lived in the U.S. for 36 years. I cultivated a worldview and learned modesty," Chang said, emphasizing that these, rather than technology and skills, were the most important things he brought back from the U.S.

Even within TSMC, he said, more than half of the high-level managers and decision makers are "circulated" talent, who went to the U.S. for their graduate studies and worked there for several years after finishing their college education in Taiwan.

At the same time, the first three general managers hired by TSMC were Americans, who each continued their successful careers after returning to the U.S., he said.

"I am very devoted to circulation and training. That is what I called training by circulation," Chang said.

Taiwan's Vice President Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁), Economic Affairs Minister Shen Jong-chin (沈榮津), Industrial Technology Research Institute Chairman Lee Chih-kung (李世光) and ATD President Tony Bingham also attended the opening ceremony.

In the afternoon, forums moderated by AIT Deputy Director Raymond Greene and Taiwan Minister without Portfolio Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫) were to discuss opportunities created by foreign governments and Taiwan's government respectively.

The organizers of the summit, held at the Nangang Exhibition Center, hope it will become an annual event.