South Korea needs to attract more foreign professionals: FKI

In order to address the chronic shortage of industrial engineering manpower, a research report proposed that South Korea put more effort into attracting foreign professionals.

A report released by the Federation of Korean Industries (FKI) on Thursday -- outlining trends in major countries to attract foreign professionals and offering recommendations for Korea -- said that "in a situation where global competition for technological supremacy is underway, we need a major shift in the paradigm of securing high-caliber engineering manpower."

The employers' organization highlighted the need to improve foreign manpower-securing policies that currently focus primarily on manual workers, saying that Korea's use of foreign professionals is only one-fifth of that of Japan.

Last year, Japan's share of professionals (those who obtained work visas as professors, researchers, or lawyers) among foreign work visa holders was 22.8%, while that for Korea was 5.3%.

The Japanese government also shortened the period of stay required for obtaining permanent residency status for foreign researchers and managerial staff and relaxed the requirements for what are recognized as high-level human resources.

The United States and China are also implementing policies such as easing the requirements for foreign professionals' work visas.

The US government lifted regulations for issuing new work visas for foreigners and eased the requirements for acquiring professional work visas (H-1B). Until the end of this year, face-to-face interviews will be exempt from the professional work visa application process.  

In 2018, China introduced a foreign talent visa scheme valid for up to 10 years for Nobel Prize winners and professors at top universities.

 "We need to review foreign policies carefully and survey the demand for foreign professionals," said Kim Bong-man, head of FKI's International Affairs Division.

"There is a need for drastic improvement in the resident terms for foreigners in Korea, such as clear targeting for high-caliber talent and preferential visas for different levels of professionals," he added. 

Write to Sang-Eun Lee at selee@hankyung.com