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
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there are 26000 white collar FTs in taiwan. i wonder how many we
have here.
taiwan’s average salary is actually lower than ours?
