Taiwanese universities like this one are offering more and more science and technology courses.

But that's not enough to meet the country's demand for talented workers.

The government has been working to attract Taiwanese with the necessary skills back from overseas.

But those efforts haven't met expectations.

Over the past four years, the country's National Science Council has spent a staggering 12.4 million U.S. dollars on a STEM recruitment program to attract Taiwanese talent residing overseas.

But since its launch, only 131 people have returned, with fewer than 100 actually staying.

Despite failing to attract citizens living abroad, universities say they've successfully recruited foreign students.

The STEM recruitment program implemented in 2020 has only recruited a small number of people.

And in a recent legislative debate, an opposition Kuomintang legislator said the results were less than ideal.

We spent more than 400 million dollars in four years.

We questioned the effectiveness of the program, and only 97 people stayed.

Do you really think that we have achieved the plan you had in mind?

The program's lackluster results have become a hot-button issue regarding government spending.

One NGO that bridges international and Taiwanese institutions says that overseas recruitment programs often struggle to convey their initiatives to their target audiences.

When it's an internationally-facing program, sometimes it's not necessarily the best marketed or even actively marketed sometimes.

So a lot of times the effectiveness of people being informed about this is actually very, very low sometimes.

Without proper promotion, government-funded recruitment initiatives may struggle to reach their quotas.

The National Science Council has recently launched a doctoral scholarship program to address the issue of understaffed Taiwanese universities.

But with their track record on recruiting talent, the council is under increasing pressure to prove that their funds aren't going down the drain.

Devin Tai and Wesley Lewis for Taiwan Plus.