Cablegate: Taiwan Financial Services, Personnel Key

This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.

092257Z Aug 05

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 TAIPEI 003316

SIPDIS

DEPT FOR EAP/TC,
PLEASE PASS AIT/W

SENSITIVE

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: ECON TW
SUBJECT: Taiwan Financial Services, Personnel Key

1. (U) SUMMARY: Taiwan's financial services sector is
expanding quickly and experiencing high turnover. Senior
staff at a number of American banks and holding companies
expressed general satisfaction with the quality of local
staff, saying skills are improving as the sector grows.
Bringing PRC national staff to Taiwan for events and
training is still a difficult and time-consuming process.
Companies also have problems hiring foreign interns, due to
labor regulations. AmCham and government agencies plan to
hold a roundtable discussion on these issues soon. AmCham
hopes to resolve some of the simpler issues quickly after
the meeting. End summary.

2. (SBU) Taiwan's financial services sector is young, and
its pool of experienced workers is still developing.
Beginning in 2000, when the government first permitted the
formation of financial holding companies, financial services
firms began to expand quickly. Over the past several years,
the sector has experienced extensive consolidation, and
annual turnover rates as high as twenty percent in its
staff. In 2003, the financial services sector employed
376,000 people. Demand for qualified staff is predicted to
outstrip supply for the next several years. The Council for
Economic Planning and Development (CEPD) has forecasted that
the sector will experience shortages in professionals of
2250 people in 2005, 1900 in 2006, and 1850 in 2007. In
interviews and communications with AIT, senior staff at
Citibank, Bank of America, MetLife, American Express, and
the American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham) in Taipei gave
their perspectives on the quality of local staff, and
expressed concerns about restrictions on bringing PRC
national staff and interns to work in Taiwan.

-----------------------------------
Local Staff Get Mostly Rave Reviews
-----------------------------------
3. (SBU) Overall, contacts were satisfied with the quality
of staff they have hired over the past few years. Isabell
Yen, vice president and country human resources director for
Citibank, told AIT she has noticed an upgrading in skills
and quality of experienced staff in the sector. She
ascribed it to the improvement of local financial holding
companies, and said that while in the past it was difficult
to find experienced foreign exchange traders, it is no
longer a problem. Ten years ago, there was a strong
distinction between the quality of the staffs at local and
foreign banks, so foreign banks would only recruit from each
other. Now, consolidation has created strong local players
like Chinatrust and Fubon, so there is movement of staff
among local and foreign banks. Eric Ngiam, Managing
Director and CEO of Bank of America, said, "The quality of
local staff has improved significantly as compared to a few
years ago. They are more hard working and language level has
improved too." Phee Boon Kang, senior vice president and
area manager of American Express, was also positive about
Taiwan's human resources. He said, "Generally, Taiwan
staffs are responsive to performance incentives and are a
productive lot." However, he noted that Taiwan finance
professionals are also being drawn to the PRC job market.
Kang said, "Recently, a trend has emerged with more and more
competition for talent and experienced retail banking/cards
managers coming from the PRC banks."

4. (SBU) Not all respondents were entirely satisfied with
the quality of workers. Lee Tang, executive vice president
and CFO of MetLife, said locally educated staff tend to be
good learners, but are not as creative or innovative as
staff educated in North America. Tang also said MetLife
wasn't getting the top graduates from elite Taiwan
universities, as they tend to go to high-tech rather than
financial services companies. Tang told AIT that MetLife
has recently experienced a shortage of qualified personnel,
especially actuaries and financial engineers. Additionally,
AmCham publications director Don Shapiro reported that other
contacts in the sector had expressed dissatisfaction with
the caliber of staff they are hiring, especially in terms of
"international perspective."

--------------------------------------
Bringing PRC Staff to Taiwan a Problem
--------------------------------------
5. (U) The May 2005 AmCham White Paper, which focused on HR
issues, highlighted the problems that many companies
experience bringing staff from the PRC to Taiwan for
training or events. Financial services companies are no
exception. While restrictions on business travel of PRC
nationals to Taiwan have been liberalized to some degree in
recent years, they are still cumbersome. Applications
require extensive paperwork and long processing times, due
to security background checks on applicants. Currently, an
applicant requires a local Taiwan guarantor, typically a
staff member who has never met the applicant, but must visit
the local police station to vouch for them. Additionally,
the regulations themselves are not always clear, because
some government agencies are not up to date on the latest
changes - causing confusion for both companies and
government. AmCham has argued that these problems in
bringing in PRC staff may lead companies to hold conferences
and other events outside Taiwan, and even to increase their
operations in other countries rather than expand in Taiwan.

6. (U) When AIT asked CEPD for a summary of the latest
regulations, CEPD responded that companies wishing to bring
staff with PRC passports to Taiwan must fall in one of the
following categories: a) multinational companies
transferring a professional staff member to work in Taiwan,
for less than three years. b) Companies with either annual
revenue over US$330,000 or R&D capabilities, to bring staff
with industrial or technological skills to work for periods
between two months and six years. c) Companies with annual
revenue over US$330,000 (US$166,000 for newly established
companies) bringing staff to work as managers or technical
personnel, or attend training or exhibitions. For short-
term work, the limit is 14 days; for long-term work 3
months. CEPD said that processing time is around one month
for first-time applications, but for emergency situations as
short as five days. The Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA)
reports that there are more than 1,000 applications approved
per month. According to the MOEA data, average monthly
approval applications have been increased some 40 percent,
growing from 1,118 in 2003, to 1,433 in 2004, to 1,593 in
2005 (based on the first six-month data of 2005). The
significant rise is a result of Taiwan's continuous
simplification of procedures. While we can expect more
Mainland China professionals to work in Taiwan as
restrictions are lifted, the number is likely to remain only
a small fraction of the number of Taiwanese business people
residing in China. A MOEA contact told AIT that in
principle, MOEA tries to review all applications and approve
or deny to applicants in 5-10 days if all required
documentations are provided.

7. (SBU) Isabell Yen of Citibank told AIT the visa process
is one of the most important HR issues facing Citibank. Yen
said currently they have few PRC staff coming to Taiwan
because entry permits are so difficult to get. She said
Citibank more frequently brings staff from Hong Kong and
Macau, but that they also require a local guarantor, which
is an unwanted responsibility for her staff. Yen reported
that in her experience, the typical processing time is
several months, not one month but said Citibank had not had
trouble bringing in other foreigners. Yen explained that
the PRC is due to open up its financial services sector in
2007 and that colleagues in Taiwan are now discussing how to
gear up for expansion into China. She noted that Taiwan is
best positioned to be the training ground for PRC national
staff, so it would be in Taiwan's interest to open up
further to short-term visits by PRC national staff.

8. (SBU) MetLife's Tang said MetLife has many PRC-born staff
with US green cards working in New York, and that is
difficult to get them to Taiwan for events. He said MetLife
is more likely to hold regional meetings and conferences in
Beijing than Taipei, because it is much easier to get
participants to Beijing. Kang of American Express noted
that the lead times for bringing Indian nationals especially
is generally more problematic for him than PRC nationals.
When asked whether he had noticed any changes in policy or
procedures, Kang said, "There are improvements in terms of
official attitude and case-by-case flexibility, but I still
do not see a systematic, pro-active policy to be competitive
in attracting foreign talents."

9. (SBU) AmCham's Shapiro said the main obstacle to change
in Taiwan government is the Council of Labor Affairs, which
fears an increase in competition from Mainland and foreign
professionals. Shapiro said the Council is stuck in an
outdated manufacturing mentality, and still believes that
bringing in one foreigner costs one local person a job --
they have yet to embrace the reality that bringing one
foreigner into Taiwan may create two new jobs. Shapiro said
contacts at CEPD were mostly in agreement with AmCham's
perspective but that AmCham has had limited discussions with
the Council of Labor Affairs so far.
----------------------------------------
Would-be Interns Turned Away From Taipei
----------------------------------------
10. (SBU) A second problem that financial services companies
face is the restriction against paying foreign interns.
Currently, Taiwan labor law requires paid foreign interns to
get work permits, and requires two years' relevant work
experience to get a work permit. Because many interns do
not meet this requirement, companies have problems hiring
interns, and students who are interested in working in
Taiwan are often driven to work elsewhere in the region,
especially the PRC. In the long run, this regulation
discourages professionals from getting Taiwan work
experience and returning to Taiwan in the future. American
Express' Kang said that due to the work experience
requirement, "it has been impossible for us to consider
[internships] so long as the students concerned are not ROC
ID holders . Even if no compensation is involved, it will
still be risky from compliance perspective for an employer
to accommodate such short term internships." Kang noted
that due to the regulations, his son, a Taipei American
School graduate and Harvard student, was unable to find a
legitimate internship while spending summers at home in
Taipei - a common experience in expat families in Taiwan.

--------------------------------------------- ---
AmCham-Government Roundtable Could Make Progress
--------------------------------------------- ---
11. (SBU) The recent high profile of human resources
problems has led to some movement to make changes. AmCham
is planning to hold a CEO roundtable discussion on HR issues
in late August or early September, with participants from
both AmCham members and government agencies including CEPD
and the Council of Labor Affairs. AmCham's Shapiro said
their goal for the roundtable is to promote quick progress
on some of the easier issues to solve, notably waiving the
two-year work experience requirement for intern work
permits, and making it easier for companies to offer paid
internships. Shapiro told AIT that once some of the easier
problems were solved, larger-scale issues like PRC national
staff could be tackled. He said changes will have to come
at the Executive Yuan level, and that help for problems on a
case-by-case basis is not a long-term solution.

-------
Comment
-------
12. (U) Financial services is a growing part of the service
sector, which the Taiwan government has recently emphasized
as the future of its economy. Many observers have suggested
that Taiwan is well positioned to market itself as an entry
point and training center for companies operating in the
Asia-Pacific region, especially the PRC. In order for this
to happen, it will have to be easier for companies to bring
their PRC staff to Taiwan for short-term visits. The need
for liberalization of immigration regulations has received
much attention recently from both the business community and
government agencies, especially CEPD. It is possible that
the upcoming AmCham - government roundtable meeting will
yield some steps in the right direction. Given the speed
with which the PRC is moving and U.S. companies are
expanding there, Taiwan will need to move quickly. Given
Taiwan's track record in recent years that will be a major
challenge. End comment. (Cable prepared by AIT Econ intern
Anne Bilby.)

PAAL

© Scoop Media