The first Talent Circulation Summit organized by Taiwan and the US was held in Taipei yesterday to discuss ways to develop and internationalize Taiwan’s workforce for the digital age.
The one-day summit, a flagship event of the American Institute in Taiwan’s (AIT) Talent Circulation Alliance (TCA), was attended by nearly 1,000 young professionals, human resources officers, business executives, academics, policymakers, entrepreneurs and students.
“Our Talent Circulation Summit will bring together all of the TCA stakeholders to explore the latest talent exchange, cultivation and networking opportunities,” AIT Director Brent Christensen said in his opening remarks.
The TCA is a public-private partnership that makes it easier for talent to circulate between Taiwan and like-minded partners, with the goal of cultivating a deep pool of capable, internationally integrated and digitally savvy professionals, the AIT said.
The four objectives of the TCA are to recreate Taiwan’s success story for the digital age, to prevent brain drain in Taiwan, to grow the nation’s talent and to expand its international presence, Christensen said.
“We ask you to view the TCA as a platform on which you can build your own talent circulation platforms and projects. Think of it as the AppStore of talent circulation, where you can realize your ideas,” Christensen said.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) founder Morris Chang (張忠謀) shared his own talent circulation story in his keynote address.
“I myself am a beneficiary of talent circulation,” said Chang, who finished his education in the US and worked for decades at US companies such as Texas Instruments before returning to Taiwan.
“I lived in the US for 36 years. I cultivated a worldview and learned modesty,” Chang said, emphasizing that these, rather than technology and skills, were the most important things that he brought back from the US.
Even within TSMC, more than half of the high-level managers and decisionmakers are “circulated” talent, who went to the US for their graduate studies and worked there for several years after finishing their college education in Taiwan, he said.
“I am very devoted to circulation and training. That is what I call training by circulation,” Chang said.
The opening was also attended by Vice President Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁), Minister of Economic Affairs Shen Jong-chin (沈榮津), Industrial Technology Research Institute chairman Lee Chih-kung (李世光) and Tony Bingham, president of the US-based Association for Talent Development.
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