Taiwan nationals can work at World Bank despite non-member status

Washington- The World Bank said Sunday that the bank's employees from countries that do not have membership of the bank will be able to maintain their employment and that Taiwan is one of them.

A spokesperson from the World Bank said the bank has changed its employment guidelines, which had previously indicated that current or prospective employees from Taiwan must have a Chinese passport in oder to keep their jobs.

The guidelines were revised after U.S.-based news website Axios exposed the rules Friday, saying that the World Bank's human resources staffers had told Taiwanese nationals that they can only be hired by the institution if they hold identification documents issued by the People's Republic of China rather than the Republic of China (Taiwan).

In response to the report, the World Bank spokesperson, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told CNA that the employment guidance on the bank's internal website dates back to 1999.

However, "it was never adopted as policy by the bank, and it is not based on the institution's Principles of Staff Employment or our Articles of Agreement," the spokesperson said.

The spokesperson added that when the World Bank's senior management was recently made aware of the Axios report, the bank took immediate steps to amend the guidance so that employees who are not nationals of a World Bank member country or a country in which the World Bank group operates are able to retain their current employment status.

"Our Principles of Staff Employment require that we treat our staff fairly," the spokesperson said. "It is regrettable that this past practice has led to some staff being asked to obtain another passport for purposes of employment."

"This is not consistent with our values as an institution and has been remedied," the spokesperson said.

The World Bank has 189 member countries. Taiwan is not included.

Currently, the World Bank has three employees who hold passports issued by Taiwan, sources familiar with the matter said.

According to the Axios report, since Taiwan bars its people from holding dual citizenship with China, the requirement indicates that Taiwanese employees would have to give up their Taiwanese passports or leave the bank.

This, however, has never happened, and the Taiwanese employees are still working for the World Bank.

Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel