Taiwan youngsters cross the Strait to develop careers

In Chinese, the direct translation of "Mainland" is big land. For aspirational Taiwanese, this big land means a big market, big growth and big opportunities.

These aspirant Taiwanese are the focus of the ongoing Straits Forum in Xiamen, the country's largest annual cross-Strait event. From established business tycoons to startup icons, the Forum provides a platform for sharing, collaboration and inspiration.

Top political advisor Yu Zhengsheng, one of the many officials to attend the Forum, met with attendees to hear their ideas.

Big Land, Big Opportunity

Cheng Po-Yu, 30, from Taipei lives in Beijing. He is one of many Taiwanese who chose to cross the Strait to develop their careers.

He coordinates Taiwan businesses at vstartup.cn, an incubation company in Beijing's Zhongguancun Technology Park. Cheng's team provides bespoke services to Taiwanese entrepreneurs who want to explore opportunities on the mainland. His team provides policy consultation, residential services and financing.

Although his family have lived in Taiwan for generations, Cheng has always harbored a dream to live on the mainland, which he says is because of his love for books on Chinese history.

It will come as no surprise that when he was a post-graduate student at Taiwan's Sun Yat-sen University, he jumped at the opportunity to sign up to cross-Strait exchange programs.

"Beijing is a city where its progress is visible everywhere. When I first came here, in 2009, metro line 10 was just half a loop. In little more than three years, not only had it become a complete ring, but it was joined by many other lines, too!" Cheng said.

The speed of development is not noticeable in infrastructure development, but also manifests in society's "ready acceptance of new stuff," Cheng said.

"The thing I like best about living here is that I hardly ever take my wallet out with me because most places accept cashless payment services, like Wechat Wallet or Apple Pay," he said.

Entrepreneur Eric Zeng, 40, from Taiwan's Chiayi, believes Taiwan lags behind the mainland in terms of mobile app technology because it does not have a policy like the mainland's "Internet Plus" initiative, which has driven many Mainland firms to integrate Internet services into their operations.

"Technological advances on the mainland are going from strength to strength," he said.

Seeing huge business opportunities across the Strait, Eric launched a cross-border e-commerce company to sell products produced in his hometown, such as tea from the Ali mountains.

The huge, vibrant and exciting Mainland market remains the biggest lure for Taiwan businesses.

"Taiwan has a population of 23 million, on the mainland it's 1.3 billion! So, even with the same time allocation, the returns are much more rewarding here," according to Taiwanese Yu Yu-sa, 35, who is a partner at Dingjun, a Xiamen-based technology firm. Dingjun is developing software for international financial transactions.

"The growth of our business is twice as fast on the mainland than in Taiwan, and the asset transaction volume of our clients is also much larger here," Yu said.

Taiwanese Niche

Although the market is huge, and development rapid, Taiwanese business people are not lost in a blind pursuit of speed and volume. They adhere to the same values that generations of Taiwan businessmen have always held dear, such as quality services.

The service industry is a relative newcomer to the mainland, but Taiwan has been confidently developing the sector since the 1990s and it is a major power for the island's economy. This experience has carved out a niche for Taiwan businesspeople on the mainland.

Yu Yu-sa's team decided not to rush development of their financial transaction software. Yu knows that attention to detail pays off and, besides, as long as other projects tick over, they are in no rush to woo new clients.

Cheng Po-yu was quick to identify problems in his company's client structure, "Too many Internet companies," he said. "So, I helped the company reduce its Internet clients by 10 percent."

Mainland entrepreneurs are too easily over excited by Internet businesses, meaning that they sometimes overlook opportunities in the services, creative or agriculture sectors, Cheng said.

Yu Zhengsheng, speaking at the opening ceremony of the Straits Forum, said the mainland will offer more opportunities to Taiwanese to study, work or start businesses, as these interactions would propel cross-Strait ties.

(APD)