Taiwan has recovered from the blows of the economic crisis last year and this means that their labor market is again open to foreign workers. Jackson Gan, the president of a group of recruitment agencies, Pilipino Manpower Association of Taiwan Inc. (PILMAT) informed that there are at lest 30,000 job opportunities that are waiting for Filipino workers in the factories of Taiwan. The number of foreign workers needed in the factories of Taiwan is even greater than before.

Gan said, “Companies in Taiwan continue to hire workers and we have thousands of job orders that are yet to be filled up until this time.”

The PILMAT president however said that recruitment agencies in the Philippines are finding it hard to send skilled overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) to Taiwan because of a warning that was issued by the secretary general of the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA).The secretary general warned that OFW deployment would be negatively affected with the creation of an economic agreement between Taiwan and China.

The PILMAT president said that the warning from NEDA has no basis considering the fact that employers in Taiwan still prefers Filipino workers other than workers of other nationalities. He also informed that an estimate of 40,000 OFWs that includes factory workers and caregivers are deployed in Taiwan each year.

Gan said, “Although Taiwan companies hire Vietnamese and Indonesians, OFWs still have the advantage because they can speak the English language unlike other nationalities.”

Gan also informed that the electronic manufacturing firms in Taiwan are not so eager to hire workers from the mainland of China.

He added, “NEDA is sounding an alarm without basis that could jeopardize the country’s economic stability. Its warning that thousands of OFWs may lose jobs is far-fetched.”