Since Enspyre first started organizing events for foreign entrepreneurs back in 2005 a lot has happened. In the early days when we met Taiwanese officials and introduced some foreign entrepreneur’s company, they would often say

– “aha, a foreign company”

– “no, a Taiwanese company with a foreign boss” we would say

– “yeah, a foreign company” they would insist

– “No, a Taiwanese company but the boss is a foreigner” we would counter

– “Yes, a foreign company” they would say with more edge as if to say why don’t you get it

The conversation could continue this way for a while.

These days, most government officials and politicians have a completely different level of awareness about foreigners in Taiwan. In the last few years we have cooperated many times with Taipei City Department of Economic Development, Hsinchu City, MOEA, SMEA, NDC and the Legislature. Today our CEO Elias Ek was invited to testify at a hearing hosted by Legislators Chung Chia-Pin and Karen Yu.

Except for Elias, there were also speeches from professors, labor groups, lawyers and government officials from Ministry of Labor, NDC, and the Immigration Department.

This hearing is one step in the process of changing laws and regulations to make it easier for foreigners to move to Taiwan and start companies.