Taiwan fights to keep foreign talent
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TAIPEI: Taiwan is planning to ease restrictions on foreign white-collar workers, to retain its global competitiveness. But apart from the island's policy, industry experts said there are other factors keeping foreign professionals away. One of the foreign professional working in Taiwan is John Eastwood, who moved to Taipei from New York 12 years ago. The 42-year-old is now a partner at law firm Eiger Law, which has tripled in size over the last five years. He said: "Coming to Taiwan was good for me because I had studied Chinese before and I knew Taiwan was a place with lots of advanced technology. So as a technology lawyer, it would be a good place to work." But foreign professionals like John are declining in number. There are now only 26,000 white-collar foreigners in Taiwan. That is only six per cent of all foreign workers on the island. China has emerged as the island's biggest competitor for foreign talent. Mr Eastwood said: "The reason why some foreigners are bypassing Taiwan is because it is a mature economy, which means sometimes people from Taiwan have the skills. Now, the laws of supply and demand means that foreigners would go to a place where his talents are needed and mainland China is one of the places that needs a lot of that help." Competition from the mainland is one thing. But the main obstacle, according to labour authorities, is Taiwan's less-than-competitive wages. Fu Huei Chih, Foreign Worker Administration Director at the Council of Labour Affairs, said: "Taiwan's average salary has not seen much of an increase in recent years… That may be a result of the island's failure to upgrade and transform its industries. They need to move towards more high-value added industries to attract more foreign talent." Taiwan's average salary is about US$1,500 a month, the lowest among the four Asian dragons, the others being Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea. Taiwan's low wages are not only keeping foreign talents out, they're also driving local talents away. At least 30,000 Taiwanese have immigrated overseas as a result. And the situation could worsen if not addressed, which could further undermine the island's competitiveness globally. -CNA/ac =========== there are 26000 white collar FTs in taiwan. i wonder how many we have here. taiwan's average salary is actually lower than ours?
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Taiwan's average salary is indeed lower than Singapore's.
What's the next destination for these white collar FTs after leaving Taiwan?
Your guess is as good as mine...
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Originally posted by dangerboi:
Taiwan's average salary is indeed lower than Singapore's.
What's the next destination for these white collar FTs after leaving Taiwan?
Your guess is as good as mine...
according to the article, they went to china.