A group of 26 managers hired for a Foxconn Technology Group plant built in Wisconsin have been in Taiwan training in plant operations, artificial intelligence (AI) and Mandarin, local media reported on Tuesday.
The managers are undergoing 2,000 hours of training in various subjects, which included an hour of language classes per day, so that they can converse with their Taiwanese colleagues in two languages, a report by English-language news site Taiwan News said on Tuesday. A report by Web site The Verge on Oct. 23 said that the plant has remained empty, and that Foxconn has repeatedly delayed its opening. If managers are still being trained in Taiwan, this might explain the delays.
Still, many questions have been raised about the benefits to the US economy of building a Foxconn factory there, and about granting the company such large tax breaks. Hopefully, the move signals greater US-Taiwan integration in the tech sector.
There is no question that Taiwanese firms struggle to retain talent, and Executive Yuan statistics show that roughly 1 million Taiwanese are employed in China. In various surveys, respondents have cited low wages and a lack of advancement opportunities in Taiwan as reasons for working abroad.
Beijing has striven to incentivize such moves as part of its “united front” strategy, but many who have relocated to China have reported sudden layoffs, financial trouble and even legal trouble after doing so. There are also information security concerns in China, where the government increasingly seeks to put individuals’ personal information online for tracking purposes.
These problems, combined with the exodus from China of many foreign companies amid the US-China trade dispute, mean that China is becoming less attractive to Taiwanese workers.
Cooperation between US and Taiwanese tech companies might provide a solution. The US is home to 45 percent of the top 100 tech companies, according to a Thomson Reuters list. However, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics reported in September that these firms were unable to fill 95,200 positions.
Of course, US firms alone would be unable to provide jobs for 1 million Taiwanese, but in areas such as software and AI development in which Taiwanese excel, cooperation could mean talent for US firms and jobs for Taiwanese graduates. The nature of software development would also mean that programmers could work from Taiwan and would not need to relocate to the US.
This could be facilitated by mergers, acquisitions or just cooperation on specific projects between Taiwanese and US small or medium-sized enterprises. This could also provide opportunities for Taiwanese to work in the US, where salaries would be better and opportunities more abundant.
The government could establish an office specifically tasked with facilitating US-Taiwan tech sector cooperative projects, much like it has been doing in ASEAN countries and India through the New Southbound Policy. The government could canvass for US and Taiwanese companies that would be interested in such projects, facilitate exchanges between both sides and provide necessary resources.
Participating firms would offer Taiwanese graduates better wages and would seek to emulate the work environments that make Chinese and US tech companies attractive for graduates. The government might even consider promoting internships through the office, which would provide Taiwanese university students a glimpse of work and life in the US.
The return of some tech companies from China back to Taiwan amid the US-China trade dispute is good, but the nation must still address the causes of the brain drain. If local firms are unable to provide the wages and opportunities graduates need, cooperation with US firms should be explored.
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