President William Lai’s (賴清德) administration is considering a plan to import labor to deal with an impending shortage of engineers and other highly skilled workers, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said in Washington on Tuesday.
Kuo was leading a delegation attending the SelectUSA Investment Summit.
Taiwan must attract about 400,000 to 500,000 skilled foreign workers for high-end manufacturing jobs by 2040, he said.
Photo: CNA
Ministry of Economic Affairs officials are still calculating the precise number of workers that are needed, as it works on loosening immigration restrictions and creating incentives, Kuo said.
Taiwanese firms operating factories in the US and other countries would help implement part of the plan by establishing education-to-employment pipelines stretching back to Taiwan, he said.
The firms would offer grants to attract high-achieving young people to study and work in Taiwan, he said.
After being professionally trained, they would return to their country of origin to work for the Taiwanese firm’s local branch, Kuo said.
Meanwhile, foreign-based companies building data centers in Taiwan would be required to employ a half-and-half workforce made up of foreign and local engineers to boost the nation’s indigenous research and development capabilities, he said.
These measures are necessary because population decline is expected to reduce the domestic supply of elite workers needed by the high-end manufacturing industries crucial to the nation’s economy, Kuo said.
Importing workers would not negatively affect Taiwan’s job market, as the foreign workers would be employed to deal with a labor shortage in Taiwan’s industries, he said.
The Ministry of the Interior is reviewing immigration and tax laws to see if changes can be made to facilitate recruitment for Taiwanese semiconductor, medical care and biopharmaceutical firms, Kuo said.
The nation’s technical leadership in these fields could help to recruit foreign talent, he added.
Kuo said he visited the US state, commerce and treasury departments to communicate the importance of eliminating double taxation with the US, he said.
The delegation emphasized that the issue is a stumbling block for Taiwanese small and medium-sized businesses planning to invest in the US, Kuo said.
US officials were urged to draft a bill to deal with that problem, he said, adding that the officials expressed optimism that the US Congress would swiftly pass related legislation awaiting review in the US Senate.
Taiwan is projected to lose a working-age population of about 6.67 million people in two waves of retirement in the coming years, as the nation confronts accelerating demographic decline and a shortage of younger workers to take their place, the Ministry of the Interior said. Taiwan experienced its largest baby boom between 1958 and 1966, when the population grew by 3.78 million, followed by a second surge of 2.89 million between 1976 and 1982, ministry data showed. In 2023, the first of those baby boom generations — those born in the late 1950s and early 1960s — began to enter retirement, triggering
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