While the government has committed itself financially to the development of the nation's biotech industry, little has been done to nurture or attract suitable expertise, executives said yesterday.
"The government had said it plans to invest NT$150 billion" in the biotech sector, "but the scarcity of talent is the point," said Li Wen-sen (
PharmaEssentia, a biotech start-up specializing in pharmaceuticals, was established last year with capital of NT$500 million.
The company now has 17 employees. But like many of its counterparts in this country, the company has faced difficulties in recruiting new blood, Li said.
"Most Taiwanese experts chose to plunge into the hottest information technology industry," he said.
The tight regulations on importing foreign talent, especially from China, also make it difficult for companies here, he added.
A disagreement between the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Ministry of Finance on how to tax experts paid using stocks rather than cash has also made it difficult to lure back overseas Taiwanese, such as the 4,500 biotech specialists in the US, Li said.
The finance ministry ruled last year that it would tax the stocks that individuals or enterprises obtained in exchange for their services, starting from the beginning of this year.
This form of payment was particularly popular in the biotech industry.
Another industry veteran agreed that the biotech sector was suffering recruitment problems.
The biotech industry had enough researchers but was struggling to find experts in pharmaceuticals development and manufacture management, said Grace Yeh (
Government officials said they recognized the problem and were working to correct it.
"We have put more focus on promotions in universities and colleges, trying to draw more talent in the areas of pharmaceuticals development, management and marketing as well as providing on-the-job training to industry workers," said Chen Chei-hsiang (
The introduction of foreign experts, however, involves policy formulation at a higher level, which requires trans-ministerial collaboration, he explained.
The nation's biotech sector was included in the government's "Two Trillion, Twin Star" (
Annual revenues for the sector rose 13 percent to NT$125.6 billion last year from NT$110.9 billion the previous year, according to BPIPO. The government plans to pour NT$150 billion into the sector by 2006, hoping to boost annual revenues 25 percent a year to NT$250 billion by 2006.
Chiang Pin-kung (
With a favorable geographic position and abundant capital, Taiwan can develop into a biotech hub for research into diseases that particularly affect Chinese people, Chiang said.
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