Nov 12, 2001

Taiwan's Council of Labor Affairs (CLA), a government agency known as strictly regulating the admission of foreign labor to the country, will implement a new measure to ease restrictions on hiring foreign while collar workers by Taiwan companies effective immediately. The IT industry will be the first to benefit from the new step.

Under the rule, companies can employ foreign white collar workers with special permission from governing agencies without the requirement on documenting past work experience, rules enforced very strictly in the past and requiring that college graduates hae at least two years of experience. The CLA adopted the new rules mainly at the request of IT companies and at the suggestion of the Science and Technology Advisory Group, a body of foreign consultants under the cabinet.
The members of this group think that the measure will help to upgrade the industrial structure and bolster Taiwan's international competitiveness.

CLA officials said that if the government signs with a foreign nation an international agreement specifiying the scope of work, the number of workers, and duration of stay, then the selected foreign experts may pick some part-time jobs with an entry visa even when they come to Taiwan on vacation

Statistics compiled by the Taiwan Electric & Electronic Manufacturers Association said that there is a demand for 196,000 senior technical employees in Taiwan during the period till 2002, while Taiwan's schools and academic institutions can turn out only 150,000 technicians.

The Science and Technology Advisory Group is also working on a plan to import computer software talents from India into Taiwan.