Taiwan aims to help foreign professionals settle long term: NDC

Taipei, Jan. 29 (CNA) Taiwan hopes to encourage more foreign professionals to settle long term, with legal amendments implemented this month aimed at helping them build more stable lives in the country, according to the National Development Council (NDC).

"We hope they can become part of us -- that is, part of Taiwan," Hsieh Chia-yi (謝佳宜), head of the NDC's Department of Human Resources Development, told CNA in an interview on Thursday.

"Many government ministries were originally more conservative, but now they are becoming more and more open," she said, adding that Taiwan recognizes the "urgent need" to employ more foreign professionals.

As countries are "competing for outstanding talent" to drive economic growth, Taiwan has upgraded its policies to better attract and retain such foreign workers, Hsieh said, referring to changes to the Act for the Recruitment and Employment of Foreign Professionals that came into effect this year.

The amendments, which passed the Legislature last year, moved "very smoothly" due to support from both ruling and opposition party lawmakers, Hsieh said, indicating that welcoming more foreign professionals to Taiwan has bipartisan support.

Among the changes, international graduates of Taiwanese universities can now work in Taiwan without a permit for two years after graduation, while recent graduates of the world's top 200 universities are eligible for a two-year open work permit without employer sponsorship.

The amendments also shorten permanent residency requirements for Taiwan-educated and "foreign specialist professionals," allow spouses of foreign specialists to work freely, and expand foreign professionals' access to pension and employment insurance systems.

The number of foreign professionals -- referring in general to white-collar workers, rather than blue-collar workers -- has roughly doubled from under 40,000 in 2017 to around 80,000 this year, according to the NDC.

Aspects of the amended law, such as the five-year limit on graduates from the top 200 global universities being eligible to work in Taiwan freely for two years, were decided after consulting policies in other countries, including the U.K. and Japan, she said.

In addition to legal changes, the NDC is actively recruiting foreign talent from abroad.

Hsieh told CNA that the NDC, for instance, is planning trips to the U.S. in July and October this year.

"AI and digital talent is concentrated mostly in the United States and India," Hsieh explained, adding that the NDC is planning to establish a talent recruitment hub in California's Silicon Valley.

The NDC, whose role involves coordinating multiple government ministries and agencies to achieve major national policy objectives, has ongoing plans to make it easier for foreign professionals to work in Taiwan, Hsieh said.

For instance, the NDC is working with the National Immigration Agency to digitize permanent residency applications and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to digitize visa processes, Hsieh explained.

"We hope to make these application procedures more convenient for foreign nationals coming to Taiwan," she said.