INTERVIEW/Lai's talent, energy policies top industry concerns: AUO chairman

Taipei, April 21 (CNA) Taiwan is facing a looming manpower problem, and energy security also remains an issue, Paul Peng (彭双浪), chairman of display panel maker AUO Corp., warned in a recent interview with CNA.

Peng's opinions on Taiwan's labor market and energy infrastructure carry more weight than those of the average private sector boss because he is also chairman of the Taipei Computer Association (TCA), which boasts more than 4,000 members across Taiwan's ICT industry.

He was particularly concerned about Taiwan's manpower situation and how the country's dwindling population will reduce the workforce when asked what advice he had for the incoming administration of President-elect Lai Ching-te (賴清德), who will take office on May 20.

"Taiwan's total population, which is now about 23 million, will shrink further if the phenomenon of deaths surpassing newborns continues," Peng said, citing an apocalyptic forecast by a scholar that the population could fall below 10 million by century's end.

A total of 135,571 people were born in Taiwan in 2023, down 30 percent from the 193,844 babies born in 2017. At the same time, deaths in Taiwan exceeded 200,000 in 2023 for the second time in recorded history after 2022, Ministry of the Interior figures showed.

"For Taiwan, the problem is not simply about attracting talent anymore. It is rather the more fundamental one concerning manpower," Peng stressed.

On what could be done to limit the population decline, the TCA chairman proposed changing the country's existing immigration policy.

"Japan is a good example of a country moving from being restrictive on immigration to actively adjusting it to supplement its dwindling population and workforce," Peng said.

He cited Japan's recent relaxation of foreign worker visas that allows permanent residence and the possibility of bringing family members to Japan, which he said would be attractive to overseas workers interested in jobs in Taiwan.

Peng also advised the government to be more open to increasing admission of foreign students, especially from Southeast Asia, who should be given the opportunity to stay for work after graduating.

"There are around 160 colleges in Taiwan, but every year about four to five close down due to a lack of students," Peng said, suggesting that the government work with enterprises on keeping the schools.

The private and public sectors could work together to improve the schools' management and increase the amount offered in scholarships, he suggested.

Another "unspeakable" solution, Peng said, would be allowing Chinese people to work in Taiwan.

"More than a million Taiwanese are working or living in China," he said, arguing that it was unreasonable to prohibit reciprocity.

"My logic is simple. At AUO, we legally applied for approval and built factories in China more than 20 years ago, so many Chinese employees have now been trained," the AUO chairman said.

He suggested laying down certain conditions, such as working at AUO in China or other Taiwanese enterprises for five years, that would qualify Chinese workers to take on jobs in Taiwan.

Energy security and resilience

Another key issue for Peng was energy security and the need for more clean energy to lower emissions.

While underscoring the importance of "energy security and resilience," however, Peng was not particularly forthcoming on how to ensure such security and resilience, though he seemed to suggest that the nuclear power option could not be ignored.

Since Taiwan's economic backbone is power-intensive manufacturing, he said, the electricity carbon emissions factor -- which defines the emissions generated by producing a kWh of power -- could affect the country's competitiveness when a company's emissions become a determining factor in trade.

"While currently South Korea's emissions factor is about the same as ours," they already have a plan to significantly reduce the factor by 2035, Peng said, adding that Taiwan has no long-term plan on this.

Taiwan's electricity emissions factor in 2022 was 0.495 kilograms of carbon dioxide emissions per kWh, according to Ministry of Economic Affairs figures, while South Korea's in 2021 was 0.411 kg/kWh, as stated in a report issued by global partnership Climate Transparency.

One way to address that, suggested by candidates who lost the 2024 presidential election campaign, would be to rely more on nuclear power, but the government's policy since 2016 has been to phase out nuclear power by 2025.

"I'm not commenting on whether it's right or wrong, but we have to secure our energy security and resilience by diversifying our energy sources," Peng said. 

Solar and wind power is intermittent, and what is also worrying is that Taiwan's wind power plants have now encountered construction delays, he added.

Waste-free nuclear fusion and hydrogen are held as promising future clean energy, "but we are facing the first net-zero evaluation in 2030, which is just five years away," he said.

Natural gas, which is currently seen as a way to replace coal, is no better, according to Peng.

"Not only is carbon still produced by using it, we also overly depend on natural gas imports that can be easily disrupted by factors we cannot control," Peng said, citing as an example recent worries that Iran might close the Strait of Hormuz, the world's most important oil artery.

Nuclear power is ideal "in terms of its stability in power supply," Peng said when pressed on the issue, but followed the government's line in saying that public communication is crucial and ways of handling radioactive waste have to be found.