An industrial delegation organized by the state government of Idaho visited Taiwan on November. 13, 2017 and signed three memorandums of understanding (MOUs) with Taiwan. Witnessed by Ms. Mei-Hwa Wang, Vice Minister of the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA), and Mr. Scott Bedke, Speaker of Idaho House of Representatives, the MOUs aim to forge a platform for talent cultivation and investment, as well as to further strengthen the linkage of industrial clusters between Taiwan and Idaho.

The near 50-member delegation, led by Speaker Bedke, included Ms. Megan Ronk, Director of Idaho Commerce, Mr. Eddy Yen, Director of Idaho Representative Office in Asia, Mr. Stephen Drake, Board Member of Micron Foundation Inc., Mr. KC Hsu, Chairman and Site Director of Micron Memory Taiwan Co., Ltd., and Mr. Homy Panahi, Chairman of PKG Inc. The first MOU, signed by Director General Jang-Hwa Leu of the Industrial Development Bureau (IDB), MOEA, and Director Megan Ronk, is to facilitate bilateral industrial development and probe business opportunities. It also aims to deepen cooperation in talent cultivation for industries. Micron Technology Foundation Inc. and Feng Chia University in Taichung signed a MOU as they look for opportunities to collaborate with academics in Taiwan and the semiconductor industry as a whole. The third MOU agreed upon by the Idaho-based PKG Inc. and the Taiwan-USA Industrial Cooperation Promotion Office (TUSA) under MOEA will kick off a long-term relationship regarding the promotion of human-machine interface technologies and the development of business. 

In her opening remarks, Vice Minister Wang extended her heartfelt welcome to Idaho delegation and the signing of three MOUs. She said that exchanges of visits, investment, and industrial cooperation between Taiwan and Idaho have been significantly increasing since the inking of the first MOU in April 2013. The bilateral cooperation was soon extended to semiconductor, aerospace, and commercialization of innovations. With rapid advances in cutting-edge technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), smart production and the Internet of Things (IoT) changing the industrial landscape, the need for a highly-skilled workforce and innovative R&D capacity to help steer industries on both sides into a bright future has served as a motivation for Taiwan and Idaho to expand the scope of the cooperation to include talent cultivation and exchanges, industrial cluster linkages, and facilitation of increased investment.

Director General Leu of IDB pointed out that, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, Taiwan was Idaho’s 3rd largest overseas export market and 4th largest source of imports in 2016, with a two-way trade amounting to US$1 billion. The industrial cooperation in semiconductor, aerospace parts and components, and solar energy has been booming as the industries between Taiwan and Idaho have a nature of complementarity. The most renowned case is Micron Technology’s accumulated investment of US$12 billion in Taiwan. The memory giant has chosen Taiwan as its global excellence center of DRAM manufacturing and plans to invest US$6 billion in Taiwan within the next three years, with an additional 2,000 high-skilled labors to be hired this year and next.