Taiwan visa terms to change, with eye on luring foreign talent to stay competitive in Asia

Taiwan’s population fell sharply last year, with a historically low number of births and record-high deaths, official figures show

Officials are attempting to attract 400,000 foreign workers to the island by 2030

Reading Time:3 minutes

Taiwan is making it easier for talented foreigners and their families to live there. Photo: Xinhua

Published: 9:00pm, 13 Jan 2023

With its birth rate plummeting and other parts of Asia competing for overseas talent, Taiwan is moving to relax a series of rules in an urgent bid to expand its pool of foreign workers.

Taiwan’s cabinet, the Executive Yuan, signed off on 52 draft amendments to its Immigration Act on Thursday, and they are now pending legislative approval, according to a statement by the Ministry of the Interior.

Taiwan’s domestic workforce is expected to shrink as the island’s overall population declined by 110,674 people last year, owing to a historically low number of births and the most deaths ever, the ministry said.

Taiwan had previously been forced to weather a 5 per cent decline in the total number of foreigners from 2020 to 2021.

The National Development Council – the policy-planning agency of the cabinet – said in September that it had set a goal of luring 400,000 foreign workers to the island by 2030. Taiwan relies largely on manufactured exports, particularly hi-tech hardware, and has a growing service sector.

The changes approved on Thursday “mainly relax residency rules and increase the incentives for high-level talent to come to Taiwan and stay”, the ministry statement says. They are now awaiting the green light from parliament, the Legislative Yuan.