MOEA Signs MOU with Idaho to Expand Mutual Industrial CooperationIndustrial Development Bureau, MOEA

The 2015 Taiwan-USA Industrial Cooperation Mission led by Director-General Dr. Ming-Ji Wu of the Industrial Development Bureau (IDB) singed on July 20 a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Commerce Department of Idaho State, with an aim to expand the scopes of bilateral industrial cooperation into green energy, semiconductor, aerospace, and commercialization of innovations. Witnessed by his honorable Lieutenant Governor of Idaho Brad Little, the MOU opens a new chapter with “a bridge for industrial clusters from both sides to interact and exchange, and thus speeding up multidimensional cooperation.”

Semiconductor is Idaho’s kernel industry with the world’s fourth largest semiconductor vender Micron Technology settling its headquarters in the state capital of Boise. Other renowned electronic companies such as Hewlett-Packard (HP) and American Semiconductor also have sizable R&D and production facilities within the state. This deepening of cooperation in semiconductor will spur more investments and transfers of advanced technology from Idaho to Taiwan. In addition, since Idaho has been piloting—and pioneering—unmanned aircrafts (UAS) technology for more than a decade and has formed an industrial cluster, cooperation in aerospace will enable both sides to jointly manufacture light airplanes, UAS, and avionics that target the U.S. and global markets.

Innovations and entrepreneurship are very vibrant in Idaho. The state government launched the Idaho Global Entrepreneurial Mission (IGEM) program a few years ago and has successfully created dozens of new startups and numerous high quality jobs. This program is in perfect harmony with Taiwan’s push to commercialize innovations to nurture new industries.

This new cooperation pattern of governments building a bridge for industrial clusters from both sides to interact and exchange, thus speeding up multidimensional cooperation will not only provide complementarity for industries from both Taiwan and Idaho, but will also serve as a model in future cooperation with other states. Through systematic linkage with industrial clusters in the United States, both countries are set to bring forth new opportunities in industrial cooperation.
Contacts
Contact Organization: Metal and Mechanical Industries Division
Contact Person: Mr.Huang
Contact Phone: (02)2754-1255 ext.2145