Taiwan moving to deepen high-tech cooperation with US

As part of its efforts to enforce the "Reconnect USA" policy, a delegation organized by Taiwan's Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) had signed six memoranda of understanding on cooperation in many high-tech fields with US heavyweight businesses before winding up its week-long visit on Sept 4., according to ministry sources.

In a bid to deepen industrial cooperation with the US, the delegation, headed by You Chen-wei, deputy director of the Industrial Development Bureau (IDB) under the MOEA, visited such leading US enterprises as Microsoft, Boeing, Micron Technologies, Rockwell Automation and Eaton, among others, which have maintained long-term procurement and patent licensing pacts with Taiwan.

IDB officials said that some delegation members, mainly representatives from the economics ministry and government-funded Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), also visited the headquarters of Microsoft to learn the next-generation AI, MR, industrial IoT and smart building technologies. They also visited nine government, academic and industrial organizations, including the Washington state government, the Ohio state government, the Idaho state government, and Ball State University (BSU), having successfully built cooperative ties between Taiwan and the Trade Development Alliance of Greater Seattle, the CleanTech Alliance of the Washington State, BSU and Rockwell Automation, the officials disclosed.

According to IDB, the Washington State is now the largest aerospace production base in the US, clustering as many as 1,740 companies in the field, as well as 14,000 companies engaged in IoT and ICT (information and communication technology) industries. IDB officials hoped that Micron Technologies, Boeing, Rockwell Automation, Microsoft and Eaton could expand their investments in Taiwan, and expected Taiwan companies engaged in smart machinery, smart manufacturing, aerospace, IoT and clean energy industries to explore markets there.

During the trip, William Bao Bean, managing director of both China Accelerator and MOX (The Mobile Only Accelerator), told the delegation that Taiwan companies can hardly differentiate themselves from China counterparts in the China market, and therefore should intensify cooperation with US industries and hire more US or other foreign talent if they want to develop a greater presence.

source:http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20170907PD209.html