New Southbound Policy Portal

Eight foreign professionals were granted ROC (Taiwan) citizenship June 24 by the Ministry of the Interior as part of government efforts to deepen the country’s leading-edge talent pool.
 
Boasting extensive experience and superlative skills, the individuals are respective specialists in the fields of education, economics, medicine and technology. They are entitled to the same rights and privileges as Taiwan-born nationals without loss of original citizenship as per a 2016 amendment to the Nationality Act.
 
One of the eight is Karl-Eugen Feifel from Germany, a wind power expert playing a key role in advancing the country’s green energy sector. The chairman of Germany-headquartered InfraVest Wind Power Group has helped finance and construct at least eight onshore and offshore projects in Taiwan.
 
Another is Thomas Mark Fifield from Australia, a cloud computing specialist making significant contributions to the development of the country’s open-source software industry and talents. The OpenStack expert and honorary fellow at the University of Melbourne’s School of Physics works closely with Academia Sinica, Taiwan’s foremost research institution.
 
OpenStack is a set of software tools for building and managing cloud computing platforms. It is managed by the OpenStack Foundation—a nonprofit comprising 100,000-plus members in 187 countries and territories.
 
Also noteworthy is Timothy Lane from the U.S., a neuroscience specialist credited with advancing the country’s related health care and medical services. The dean of Taipei Medical University’s College of Humanities and Social Sciences has been performing brain imaging experiments and running a clinical trial on vegetative state patients in Taiwan since 2017.
 
The latest batch of foreign professionals granted citizenship brings the total to 141 since 2017, according to the MOI. (TYT-E)
 
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