Nigeria Abroad
The Korean government will ease visa rules for foreign workers in R&D and new industries such as artificial intelligence (AI), to more actively attract skilled foreign professionals, officials said Wednesday.
The government will also create a “digital nomad visa” that would allow skilled foreign IT workers to stay there even if they do not work for companies based in Korea.
A foreigners’ policy committee chaired by Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun finalized the decisions during a meeting earlier in the day, saying the measures, which will be pursued this year, will also be aimed at bracing for a continued decrease in Korea’s population, accompanied by a growing number of elderly people, resulting in declines in the number of workers.
Members of the committee included the justice minister as well as vice ministers from the education ministry, foreign ministry and science ministry.
The committee said government would grant additional points in visa screening procedures when the applicants hold intellectual property rights in foreign countries.
Government will ease the criteria for a D-8-4 visa for those seeking to establish companies there as long as the excellence of their technologies is recognized.
Government will also remove limits on the number of foreign workers to be employed by companies in new industry fields, such as AI and bioscience, in a bid to lower the barrier to foreigners’ entry into domestic firms.
The digital nomad visa, which will be issued even to applicants not working for companies based in Korea, will allow them to stay there while working remotely.
“We expect this to help invigorate the country’s tourism industry and promote cooperation with domestic companies,” an official from the Office for Government Policy Coordination said.
American Chamber of Commerce (AMCHAM) Board of Governors Chairman Jeffery Jones praised the move, but added that one thing missing in the latest measures was the reformation of the tax policies for foreign workers.
“Korea tends to impose heavier taxes on foreign workers, compared to Singapore and Hong Kong. To attract more skilled foreign professionals, tax benefits should be enhanced as well,” he said.
Meanwhile, to help small manufacturing businesses as well as agricultural, fishing and dairy industries, which have faced deepening difficulties due to a lack of workers, the government will shorten the re-entry limitation applied to foreign workers to one month from the current three months.
The government will also allow foreign workers to extend their stay by up to one year if it is difficult for them to return to their homelands due to outbreaks of infectious diseases or natural disasters.
And the fact that 66 percent of foreign nationals are concentrated in Seoul has made it more difficult for local governments to attract foreign workers. To deal with this issue, the government will come up with a variety of measures to help them settle in areas outside of Seoul, officials said.
The measures come as dramatic population changes have already begun in Korea. In 2020, the nation’s population fell year-on-year for the first time, with deaths surpassing births, according to the latest census figures released by the Ministry of Interior and Safety.
The Korea Economic Research Institute earlier forecast that the country’s population would drop by half to less than 25 million by 2060, while the Korea Development Institute predicted that the nation’s potential growth rate would fall to 1.9 percent between 2031 and 2040, from 3.6 percent between 2011 and 2020.
This story first appeared in Nigeria Abroad
