Taipei: The same cafe in the sleepy southern Taiwanese city where coconut trees grow like weeds and the Pacific Ocean crashes on wide sandy beaches is where American Kelly Davis wakes up every morning to exercise and drink coffee.
She logged on from 2 to 10 p.m. to run the international English-language school she co-founded while living in the nearby industrial city of Kaohsiung.
In Taitung in 2021 and early 2022, Davis experimented with living as a digital nomad, spending his leisurely mornings and evenings working online. But after three straight months living in the city of 107,000 people, she realized the place wasn't for her.
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"It was tough," said Davis, 35, who speaks some Mandarin and came to Taiwan about ten years ago to try to teach English. “There is something unique in Taiwan, but working there and comparing it globally in Taitung there is no community you can participate in and no co-working spaces where you can meet like-minded people,”
While Taitung may have a way to go before it can compete with popular destinations for digital nomads like Bali, it could be the start of something big for Taiwan, which is looking to legalize e-commerce in an effort to attract 400,000 foreign workers by 2030. removing obstacles.
According to the island's government, it needs foreign workers to supplement its domestic workforce and make up for its low birthrate.
A government-sponsored survey conducted last year found that 3.65% of 5,361 foreign professionals in Taiwan with open work permits work remotely, effectively making them digital nomads.
However, the island is not often thought of as a place where people go when they want to leave everything and work abroad.
Digital Nomad's list of best places for remote workers in 2023 only has four Asian cities: two in Bali, one in Thailand, and one each in Vietnam and Bali. Cities are rated on blogs and online communities based on liveability, internet speed and cost of living.
In contrast to the hundreds of thousands of skilled workers Taiwan needs to support its basic industries, some local governments are laying the groundwork to attract mobile and independent workers like Davis.
The Taitung County government collaborated with Taipei-based non-profit Crossroads to create a welcoming environment for digital nomads, working with a hotel to offer accommodation and a shared workspace.
In addition, it helped foreign workers learn English so they can rent scooters and obtain driver's licenses, and it is teaching 80 local businesses how to deal with foreign tourists.
Davis is one of the many digital nomads who have benefited from the program. The organization Crossroads, which focuses on the internationalization of Taiwan, is pressing the central government to further recognize the group.
According to David Chang, general secretary of Crossroads, "It's already happening, but the question is whether we can have more official channels for digital nomads.
"Even just something called a digital nomad visa would signal to the rest of the world that Taiwan is indeed open and welcoming," the author said.
Before the coronavirus pandemic thrust the term "digital nomad" into the global spotlight, foreign freelancers were demonstrating "long-term living" in Taitung, according to Jasmine Lin, publicity head for the Department for International Development and Planning.
Due to Taiwan's relatively low infection rate at the time, the pandemic accelerated the trend towards remote work, and the island saw an increase in foreigners with open work permits in 2020–2021.
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To be eligible for a Taiwan work permit, individuals must demonstrate their professional track record, usually including employment or high income. Since 2020, 6,000 individuals have requested open work permits and residency under the Taiwan Employment Gold Card Program.
According to Lin, Taitung's clean air, surfing beaches, indigenous culture and cuisine made it attractive during the pandemic. According to him, foreigners with Facebook accounts started getting free access to community Wi-Fi networks two years ago.
According to Lin, the flow of long-term visitors should aid in the diversification of Taitung's economy, which is heavily dependent on agriculture and tourism, and newcomers may also volunteer in public schools.
According to Lin, "There are more and more remote workers. We did more research on this topic after realizing that we have this capability and that we can provide services to them. There is no real barrier here."
Norden Ruder, a seven-year-old guest house with 65 mostly one-person rooms, is one local company attempting to tap the market. Along with his vine-covered atrium, owner Chang Chia-feng has added a shared kitchen, a bike repair station, and office-like joint working spaces. He claimed that the common areas are where visitors mingle.
Regular travellers and digital nomads can stay in this type of hotel as long as they getused to the surroundings, according to Chang. He remembered a month-long stay by an Italian artist in 2019 and visits from Google staff members.
Beginning in February, digital nomads will be able to apply for house leases in Dawu, a coastal hamlet located south of Taitung City along a railway line.
Through a National Development Council youth empowerment programme, foreigners in at least one other region of Taiwan are receiving assistance from the government with legal paperwork and networking.
Instead of encouraging digital nomadism, the outreach is intended to revitalise the economies of 30 local communities, but the contractor in Toucheng Township is bringing in foreign business owners to give the east coast community a more global feel.
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According to Peng Jen-hung, the company's founder, 30 to 50 people per day can network with one another thanks to Goldfish Space's regular tea gatherings.
The events, which began in 2016, have, according to him, helped a foreign-owned pizza shop, a surfboard maker, and a musician find markets as well as friends.
Neil Roe, 50, claimed that after turning his hobby into a business, he was operating his surfboard shaping operation in Toucheng "hand-to-mouth."
He was given access to a local culture fair and radio time thanks to Goldfish Space. In order to stay current with tax and permitting laws, he has since found young people to assist with his accounting.
Roe, a native of South Africa, said, "We were disconnected from everyone else and now we're connected to everyone else. Digital nomads are still not recognised by any central government office as a category of visa or residency holder.
The National Development Council informed The Washington Post in January that there was no current research being done on digital nomads.
According to Chang of Crossroads, Taiwan frequently enchants visitors with lifestyle benefits like easy access to transportation and high levels of public safety, perfect for those without stable employment. Additionally, there is good internet coverage.
But he added that the island needs to make it easier for foreigners to access banking services and housing. Due to their inability to locate a local professional network or find business partners, some gold card holders have given up on Taiwan, he continued.
Because they are unsure of how to tax digital nomads who make money abroad, some officials are delaying the issuance of visas, according to Chang.
Davis completely departed Taiwan in March, and this month she moved to Lisbon, which is ranked first on By Digital Nomads' list of the best cities to live in 2023.
In addition to having more convenient time zones for working with multinational corporations, I moved here because it was closer to my home than Asia. Taiwan has a lot going for it, but if some of the issues aren't resolved, it will find it difficult to compete.