The Council for Economic Planning and Development (CEPD) has drafted a plan to attract investment and skilled immigrants in light of the country's falling birth rate and slowing population growth, an official said yesterday.
The council has estimated that Taiwan will enter a period of negative population growth from 2019, the official said. Trained foreign professionals and young skilled workers must be recruited to sustain development, he said.
The council has conducted a feasibility study on attracting investment and skilled immigrants and reviewed immigration regulations adopted by Singapore and Japan, he said.
Foreign economic, financial and technological personnel under 40 years of age, particularly those from countries with a per capita national income lower than Taiwan's, will be prime targets under the plan, he said.
East European countries could be a good source of personnel, he said, noting that Ukraine has an advanced defense industry.
According to the council's plan, Taiwan could take in up to 1 million skilled and investment immigrants by 2050. In the first category, chief executives, fund managers, scientists, engineers, medical doctors, graduate students, skilled technicians and special professionals would be welcomed.
Those seeking investment immigration would have to invest a specified amount of money in launching a new business, expanding their existing businesses, purchasing real estate or depositing a large amount of cash in local banks.
The immigration promotion plan still focuses on theoretical model analysis and collection of information on relevant foreign regulations and systems, he said.
The council study shows that Britain has embraced 600,000 new immigrants since it adopted an open-door immigration policy in 2004, the official said, which has had a strong impact on British society, including its job market.
In Singapore, foreign-born residents account for 18 percent of the city-state's population.
sSingapore has tied investment to immigration, offering permanent residency to those who set up companies or launch investment projects in the city state.
The council official said the government will evaluate all the possible impacts on the nation's income, economy and job market once the new immigration policy is put into practice.
The official said the government would not close the door to qualified Chinese high-tech personnel. But given the cross-strait situation, the government must make a further review before embracing other Chinese immigrants, he said.
According to National Immigration Agency statistics, there are 314,000-plus foreign laborers and more than 14,000 foreign white-collar workers in the country.
Of the latter group, more than 5,000 are teachers, more than 3,000 are business professionals and more than 2,000 are engineers.
The small number of foreign white-collar professionals, coupled with their excessive concentration in just three professions, particularly teaching, indicates that incentives and job opportunities for foreigners remain limited in Taiwan, immigration officials said.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last