NDC Working on Economic Immigration Bill|新經濟移民法草案 放寬限制.訂產業別配額

The National Development Council is drafting a new immigration bill to address the labor shortage problem faced by industries in Taiwan, which relaxes some restrictions, hoping to attract foreign professionals and mid-level technicians to work in Taiwan. On the other hand, the government has promised to put some control measures and quotas in place to minimize the impact on domestic labor market.


Taiwan is plagued by both a declining birthrate and an aging society. As a result, the labor shortage faced by industries is becoming more and more severe. The National Development Council is seeking to address this problem with a new economic immigration draft bill aimed at attracting foreign talents to Taiwan. This bill relaxes restrictions on foreign professionals, foreign mid-level technicians and overseas citizens, as well as their descendents. The focus of this bill is foreign mid-level technicians.

I think it's necessary to introduce foreign mid-level technicians, because we can see that many young people nowadays are unwilling to join the manufacturing industry. Moreover, with the cooperative education system of the past, the functions of technical and vocational schools slowly transformed. These qualified workers from the past are now all in their 50s and 60s. Once they retire, there will be a severe shortage of skilled workers.

NDC statistics show the major precondition of introducing foreign mid-level technicians is ensuring that it won't affect domestic salaries and workers. These technicians will need to meet certain salary levels and job qualifications. As such, the bill includes controls on a maximum number and industry quotas to reduce the impact on the domestic labor market. The bill does not include immigrant investors. According to the NDC, Taiwan's current regulations on immigrant investors are not as stringent as those of other countries. If restrictions are further relaxed, it will lead to increased control costs.

There are many students who went abroad to study and now can't come back. I think further relaxing restrictions on immigrant investors will attract foreigners to come to Taiwan to invest.

Scholars warn if Taiwan's salaries remain low compared to global levels, and the future direction of industries is unable to assist in the development of professionals, a relaxing of restrictions will not bring about real, effective changes.