By William C. Pao The China Post 94/09/09
Taiwan should promote itself as having the friendliest environment for foreign businesses in Asia: Richard Vuylsteke
The American Chamber of Commerce in Taipei, or AmCham, celebrates its 54th anniversary today, commemorating services that the organization has provided to U.S. businesses based in Taiwan over the past five decades.
Looking back at the past year, Richard Vuylsteke, executive director of AmCham, said the organization has seen a rise in membership and more diverse programs to suit the interest of different U.S. companies. Members, which range from fast food restaurants to world-renowned IT firms, have increased from 814 in 2004 to 847 this year.
An important reason for the increase in membership was the more diverse and varied programs offered by the organization to help companies know more about the business culture of Taiwan and develop a more internationalized staff, Vuylsteke said. For example, some of Taiwan’s most influential businesspeople were invited to speak at AmCham under a speakers series, with figures such as Stan Shih, chairman emeritus of Acer Inc., and Douglas Hsu, head of the Far Eastern Group, sharing their visions and ideas with AmCham members.
Moreover, Vuylsteke takes pride in the fact that AmCham has organized several social events last year in addition to business events. One example is the all-chamber networking event, where members of not only AmCham but also the European Chamber of Commerce Taipei, the Australia and New Zealand Chamber of Commerce and other international business associations got together and had fun drinking and chatting.
As for next year, AmCham will continue to advocate on behalf of American businesses in Taiwan and work with the government to improve certain issues facing overseas businesses and foreign investors here on the island. Some of these issues include the need to bring more healthcare professionals from abroad, rampancy of counterfeit foreign pharmaceuticals and the flow of capital and human resources to and from the island.
“Believe us — we are here to work with the government, not to criticize them,” Vuylsteke said.
In Vuylsteke’s words, issues such as direct cross-strait flights and intellectual property rights are secondary. While direct cross-strait transportation is important — even vital — for AmCham members as most of them have operations on mainland China, some of the more important issues would still remain unresolved “even if direct flights were opened tonight,” he said.
What needs to be done is a change of the protectionist mindset that many Taiwanese people have, he said. This change is especially important in today’s society where things are made better through competition, he said.
Vuylsteke stressed that Taiwan should promote itself as having the “most welcoming environment for foreigners to do business in the Asia Pacific,” and it has the potential of achieving that. However, if Taiwan wants to become more international, it needs to have more people that are international — overseas professionals who belong to different ethnic groups and have different ideas and beliefs — like what societies are like in places such as Hong Kong, Singapore and even Shanghai, he said.
"The Taiwanese should think in terms of a developed service industry, not assembly line,” Vuylsteke said. “It’s not like a foreign company coming to Taiwan would force all local companies out of business, or take away local jobs.”
Instead, Vuylsteke cited American fast food chains like McDonalds, which hires all local employees. “Foreign companies create jobs, and at the same time upgrade the business practices of local firms,” he said.
Against this backdrop, Vuylsteke said the government should engage in more interactions with overseas firms to see “where the shoe pinches.” One of the most pressing issues facing overseas firms is the need to make the flow of human resources more flexible in Taiwan, he said. If the island wanted to import more experts and professionals from abroad, it had to loosen, if not remove, restrictions that make application of work permits or travel difficult for foreigners. The government should also improve the quality of life of foreign workers by establishing a more English-friendly environment, building more English schools for expatriate children and developing other tools that would help foreigners get around easier, he said.
Speaking on IPR, Vuylsteke said what stepped-up IPR enforcement would do is to ultimately make Taiwan the foremost research and development center in the Asia Pacific region. In his view, collaboration and integration with mainland Chinese businesses is only going to get stronger, and there is no point to go against the trend. What Taiwan really ought to do, he said, was to differentiate itself from mainland China by doing R&D work on highly advanced or sensitive technologies that the other side of the strait could not for the next couple of years to come. Protecting one’s intellectual property rights is the best way to ensure that, he said.