Multi-national corporations have established about 20 research and development (R&D) centers in Taiwan but are now faced with a shortage of professionals to work in them.
Jack Tang, vice president of Phoenix Technologies Ltd Taiwan, a US-based core system software developer, said the industry clustering effect and a large talent pool prompted the company to locate another R&D center in Taiwan last year.
At a seminar held by the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA,
However, Tang said he also found that the center was having to train their local research crew, as no one met the unique skills set and experience the company required.
Phoenix employed between 60 and 70 engineers in Taipei in 2002, or around 75 percent of its total work force here. When it announced the plans to set up an R&D center last August, Phoenix said it planned to double that number.
But Tang yesterday said that educational institutions here do not offer good training.
Phoenix, which has two other centers in the US and China, is not the only multinational enterprise that is encountering problems finding suitable professionals, said Amy Chou (
quick fix
The problem appears to have been partially resolved after the government allowed multinationals to hire overseas professionals, including people from China, Chou said.
In response to the shortage, the government has agreed to allow suitable graduates to work in the centers instead of doing their compulsory military service, she added.
To help transform Taiwan from a manufacturing-based economy to a R&D-driven one, the government hopes to attract up to 40 R&D centers from overseas by 2007, Frank Lai (賴富), a division manager of the Department of Industrial Technology under the Ministry of Economic Affairs, told the Taipei Times yesterday.
Other incentives, such as tax breaks and subsidies for operating expenses, are expected to lure more R&D centers, Chou said.
Hewlett-Packard Co, IBM Corp and Microsoft Corp are among the companies that have already established centers, and new entries this year include telecommunication giant Alcatel SA, DuPont Co and Motorola Inc.
These companies are expected to bring in more than NT$17 billion in investment, the ministry said.
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