At today's Cabinet meeting, Premier Jiang Yi-huah called for further recruitment of ethnic Chinese students from overseas.
The policy of encouraging such students to attend ROC educational institutions has a longstanding history, and has not only pioneered the globalization of ROC education but also helped foster innumerable outstanding talents, Jiang said. Moreover, upon returning to their home countries, these individuals have performed exceedingly well in academia and industry alike.
In addition to building strong foundations for the ROC's human resources networks abroad, these former students have been the nation's most faithful and staunchest supporters in every part of the world and are important bridges for expanding and developing Taiwan's educational, economic and cultural activities, noted the premier.
As overseas Chinese students grew up abroad but are similar to Taiwanese in terms of culture, values and languages, they have the advantage of possessing both "local" and "international" characteristics. Their recruitment and cultivation should therefore be a priority, particularly in light of Taiwan's decreasing birthrate, stated the premier.
Premier Jiang made these remarks after being briefed by the Overseas Community Affairs Council (OCAC) on the progress and implementation of related policies.
Jiang enjoined the OCAC to proactively formulate short-, mid- and long-term plans to roll out various measures for recruiting, cultivating and retaining these talents. The premier also instructed relevant ministries to harbor new policy concepts and collaborate with the OCAC.
"The OCAC cannot successfully accomplish these policies on its own. It is imperative for other central agencies to proactively lend a hand in helping to retain outstanding overseas ethnic Chinese students so they can strive hand-in-hand with Taiwanese for the nation's development," the premier remarked.
Likewise, policies toward foreign students should adhere to the same principles, Jiang added. The ROC offers various types of incentives and subsidies to attract foreigners worldwide to study Mandarin and Chinese culture in Taiwan. After returning to their home countries, these individuals have demonstrated their staunch support for Taiwan, as well. Such assets and soft power are treasures with tremendous value that cannot be measured monetarily, the premier affirmed.
Foreign students have helped deepen the talent pool and accelerate the nation's globalization. The premier thus expects various ministries to use open minds and international perspectives to recruit global talents, inviting them to work together with Taiwan for its development.
Over the past six to seven decades, OCAC policies have successfully recruited over 190,000 overseas ethnic Chinese students who have completed their studies or taken technical training courses in Taiwan. They have established a total of 104 alumni associations in 65 locations worldwide, which have helped Taiwanese industries to expand into global markets and enhanced the nation's political, economic and cultural ties and exchanges with other countries. With the ROC now facing an imbalanced population structure and domestic manpower shortage, recruiting more overseas ethnic Chinese students would be an optimal solution, OCAC officials said.
On June 29, the Executive Yuan promulgated an action plan to encourage outstanding overseas ethnic Chinese and foreign students to stay and work in Taiwan after they finish their studies in the country. As part of that effort, a points- and quota-based work-visa mechanism was launched in July, replacing the single wage-level threshold system.
Through cross-ministry work to promote these measures, the number of overseas ethnic Chinese students enrolled for studies in Taiwan has grown 40 percent over the last six years, from 12,661 during the 2008-2009 academic year to 18,068 during the 2013-2014 academic year. About 90 percent of these students came from Malaysia, Macau, Hong Kong, Indonesia or Myanmar to study engineering, business and management, or the humanities, generating economic value of about NT$4.7 billion (US$156.7 million) for Taiwan in the process.