5G Needs Talent; Industry Players Call for Abolition of the Expensing of Employee Bonuses

The Executive Yuan's Science and Technology Advisory Group convened a 5G development industry strategy meeting (SRB). Kuo Tai-chiang, chairman of the Taiwan Electrical and Electronic Manufacturers' Association, said that for 5G deployment, talent is a key factor, and that the "policy of expensing employee bonuses" has deprived domestic industries of an important tool for attracting talent, and he called on the government to propose measures to attract outstanding talent.

Kuo Tai-chiang pointed out that advanced countries have already begun 5G deployment and research and development, and that 5G development should adopt a more macro market strategy mindset to formulate industrial development strategies. He suggested that the government should invest resources over the long term, establish industry-academia cooperation platforms and sharing mechanisms led by incorporated entities, and support industry-academia-research participation in the formulation of international standards.

He said that the authorities responsible for spectrum planning and license issuance should be unified, and that in particular, ample notice time should be reserved before licenses are issued, along with consideration of the market economy scale.

Kuo Tai-chiang suggested that the government create incentives to encourage telecom operators to give priority to domestically produced equipment and service solutions, so that operators can first gain domestic operating track records to facilitate their entry into international markets.

He said that domestic research and development is severely insufficient, causing major companies to poach talent everywhere, and that the "policy of expensing employee bonuses" has caused domestic industries to lose an important tool for attracting talent. To prevent talent from continuing to flow to neighboring countries, he called on the government to promptly study and propose measures to attract outstanding talent.

In addition, Kuo Tai-chiang pointed out that the current industry-academia cooperative research and development mechanism should be changed, that courses, special topics and theses at key domestic universities should be changed to integrate closely with industry at an earlier stage, and he suggested that professor promotion should not be based mainly on publishing papers in journals, and that important patent output should be included as a condition for promotion.