The Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) has played an important role in supporting the development of R&D and innovation in Taiwan’s hi-tech sector, and has made an enormous contribution to Taiwan’s industrial development. It therefore comes as no surprise to learn that ITRI attaches great importance to the recruitment of hi-tech talent from overseas, so as to maintain a high level of internationalization. Besides participating actively in the overseas recruitment fairs organized by the government, ITRI has established its own overseas recruitment team and set up a website to attract overseas talent.

　　Manager Cheng Lin-Hao was very impressed by the overseas recruitment fairs that the government organized in 2003. He feels that the fairs are the most effective part of the measures adopted by the government to help Taiwanese enterprises recruit overseas talent. If enterprises want to achieve long-term success in the recruitment of overseas talent, they must be willing to allocate sufficient time and money to it. By participating in government-organized overseas recruitment fairs, enterprises can achieve better results in their own recruitment activities, while also strengthening their corporate image and name recognition. Cheng feels that last year’s overseas recruitment fairs were a tribute to careful planning by the Science and Technology Advisory Group of the Executive Yuan, the National Science Council and the Ministry of Economic Affairs; they also benefited from the involvement of senior government officials, which encouraged Taiwan’s leading enterprises to send recruitment teams to participate, and to ensure that there were a large number of job vacancies for candidates to fill. A kind of “cluster effect” was created, with an impressive degree of synergy.

　　The main objective behind the holding of recruitment fairs overseas is to create the right kind of image; the goal is to make people in other countries aware that high-quality jobs are available in Taiwan, and that the government is serious about wanting to encourage people working or studying overseas to come back to Taiwan to work or start their own business. The results of overseas recruitment fairs are thus difficult to quantify; nevertheless, Cheng is certain that, over the long term, they do create significant intangible benefits. The important thing is to continue organizing activities of this kind over an extended period, because building up a country’s image is not something that can be achieved overnight; it requires at least three to five years of continuous effort. Cheng has high hopes for the overseas recruitment fairs being held in 2004; he believes that, given the superb results achieved in 2003, it should be possible to do even better this year. Once again, ITRI will be playing its part in the fairs, hoping to recruit even more first-class overseas talent than last year.