Issued by: Taiwan -Panorama

Issued on: 2008/10/27

Taiwan-Panorama 　2008.10.08
Andre Huang/photos by Chuang Kung-ju/tr. by Jonathan Barnard

The emigration of talent has long been controversial in Taiwan. When high-level personnel move to Singapore, Hong Kong, mainland China and the USA to strut their professional stuff, Taiwan society seems happy and sad at the same time. We should remain vigilant about the brain drain, but it's easy to overlook that Taiwan also has many advantages that continually attract foreigners to work and live here.

According to the National Immigration Agency, at the end of 2007 there were 493,108 foreigners living legally in Taiwan. Only 22,670 (or 5%) were white-collar workers, most of them language teachers from Japan, the US, and Canada.

These numbers pale beside those of highly internationalized cities like Singapore (one fourth of whose residents are foreigners) and Hong Kong. The disparity bears witness to Taiwan's weakness in the talent wars. Nonetheless, many white-collar foreign workers in Taiwan feel that their careers have gone smoothly, and say they are happy to be living here. The discrepancy between the "high reviews" and the "low turnout" should be a focus of future efforts to attract foreign talent.

Manufacturing: Taiwan's foundation
Currently working as a marketing director for the SHL Group, a Hong-Kong-registered firm that has won several awards from the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Canadian citizen Steven Kaufman has lived in Taiwan for 12 years. "We've never had to worry about attracting talent, because Taiwan has special manufacturing advantages, which have allowed SHL to become a world leader in medical materials manufacturing," Kaufman says. "Consequently, we can provide sufficiently handsome pay packages to attract talent from around the world." When this reporter visits, Kaufman introduces colleagues from France, Britain, the United States and other countries. The company is like a little global village all in itself.

Headquartered in Taoyuan, the SHL Group was established in Taiwan in 1989 by Roger Samuelsson, a native of Sweden. SHL researches and manufactures high-quality medical devices, including drug delivery systems such as pen injectors. All of its products are made for export. Currently there are only three companies anywhere in the world that can make these kinds of products, and the SHL Group is the leading company among them.

Having established roots in Taiwan long ago and deriving its international competiveness from Taiwan's unique advantages, the SHL Group plans on opening a new production facility here next year.

Companies in Taiwan do not enjoy low labor costs, but SHL, with major global pharmaceutical companies as its clients, has been able to meet its clients' special needs for sophisticated medical products. "Taiwan has many excellent engineers and workers, and you can make high-quality products here." Kaufman notes that Taiwan has complete supply chains that deliver superior plastics and machine parts. These make it easy for SHL to develop and manufacture various devices that can satisfy the market and meet clients' special needs.

Entrepreneurial environment
Many foreigners have also been deeply impressed by the entrepreneurial environment in Taiwan.

Kaufman describes the entire commercial environment in Taiwan as one that is bursting with opportunities. All those stories about workmen becoming their own bosses are one of main reasons that SHL founder Samuelsson decided to come and set up his business in Taiwan. "Taiwan is a place where you can think big" is the way that Kaufman puts it.

"Taiwan has clear laws, stability, and a comprehensive health and labor insurance system. There is a sense of security here. These excellent conditions have allowed SHL to continue to attract top-flight foreign personnel."

Observe others, know yourself
This notion of a cultural fiber unique to Taiwan is also felt by those who have lived in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore-and compare the three places.

One manager, a Taiwan native who has worked in Singapore and Hong Kong, says that in Hong Kong business is strictly business, and friendship plays little part in it. And he decries a gap between Singapore's international image and its reality. Once you leave the special tourist districts, the standard of service in restaurant and shops drops markedly, and the red tape and paperwork imposed by government agencies makes it very inefficient. All in all, it makes him feel very ill at ease.

And although higher education in Singapore is outstanding, the opportunities are only given to the elite, who are rounded up for government service after graduating. Starting in junior high, most people are put on a second-class track, and they see little benefit from the massive government investment in education. Consequently, the native workforce is insufficient, and Singapore must supplement its workforce with foreigners.

Of course, Taiwan has a lot of faults and plenty of room for improvement. Kaufman cites an example from working at SHL: Generally speaking, the Taiwan government doesn't do much in the way of examining and verifying foreign personnel coming to Taiwan as long as the company has vetted them-except by putting restrictions on bringing in foreigners who have just graduated and have less than two years of work experience.

"But there is some top talent you want to grab right away. Once they go to some other country to work first, many fewer of them will come to Taiwan in later years," Kaufman says.

It would appear that getting foreign workers to feel as if they've come to their second home poses serious challenges to many countries. The first step for Taiwan is to establish a consensus-an understanding that these foreign friends are important for national development and that they need to be treated with sincerity. If Taiwan can then spread its good reputation by word of mouth, that would provide a lot of help in attracting foreign talent.

About SHL

SHL is the world’s largest privately-owned designer, developer and manufacturer of advanced drug delivery devices. We have over 1,500 staff globally (1000 staff in Taiwan), with our primary design centers located in the USA and Sweden and manufacturing centers located in Asia.

SHL supplies auto injectors, pen injectors and inhaler systems to global pharmaceutical and biotech companies. Significant investment in R&D has enhanced our broad pipeline of “next generation” drug delivery systems. These innovative devices include a range of disposable and reusable injectors with fixed or variable dosing, enhanced precision and the ability to accommodate high viscosities.

Our organization consists of three distinct group companies:

SHL Medical
Designs, develops and manufactures advanced drug delivery devices for leading pharmaceutical and biotech companies

SHL Healthcare
Develops and manufactures equipment solutions for home, hospital and long term care use

SHL Technologies
Provides contract manufacturing and engineering services for the production of complex medtech and industrial products

For additional information visit www.shl-group.com or contact us at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it