“We are facing a major demographic change and talent drain, with continuous exports of high-end professionals and imports of entry-level workers,” Mao said. “All relevant agencies have been directed to recruit and retain quality professionals, students and workers from home and abroad.”
The premier made the remarks following a Cabinet briefing on related reforms and measures aimed at addressing the issue going forward.
Taiwan’s labor force will decrease by 150,000 workers annually beginning 2016, a situation threatening to hamstring national development. As part of efforts to reverse this trend, the ministries of Economic Affairs and Science and Technology will work to enhance industrial automation of the private sector, according to Mao.
The premier added that a key step in this undertaking involved the passage of amendments late last year to ROC Population Policy Guidelines.
Proposed by the National Development Council, the revisions pave the way for increasing labor participation and implementing regulatory easing to develop a friendlier environment for immigrants and overseas compatriots.
Sources familiar with the matter said the Cabinet is in the process of establishing a strategic task force in this regard. Overseen by the NDC, the new body comprises officials from the MOEA and ministries of Education, Foreign Affairs and the Interior.
The task force’s functions include enhancing the MOFA’s role in talent recruitment abroad, establishing a service center and matchmaking platform and offering incentives to encourage foreign talent recruitment by authorized companies.
“We are confident this raft of policy initiatives will prove effective in managing talent pool changes and meeting the short- and long-term needs of industry,” Mao said. (SFC-JSM)
Write to Taiwan Today at ttonline@mofa.gov.tw