TAITRA President and CEO Huang Win-jung (center) and Tim McCabe (right), director of the Oregon Business Development Department.

Taipei, April 22 (CNA) The Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) signed an agreement Tuesday with the Business Development Department of Oregon to expand technology cooperation with the U.S. state.

The memorandum of understanding (MOU) was inked in Taipei by TAITRA President and CEO Peter Huang and Tim McCabe, director of the Oregon Business Development Department.

It commits Taiwan and Oregon to investigate ways that the two sides can work more closely together on both inbound and outbound investment opportunities.

The MOU, the first agreement between Taiwan's main trade promotion body and Oregon in 35 years, hopes to expand their partnership in new technologies such as bio-medicine and electric vehicles.

"This demonstrates that TAITRA and Oregon not only form a 35-year-old, long-term and strong partnership, but also that we share the same goal to meet future challenges together," Huang said at the signing ceremony.

Under the agreement, companies in Taiwan and Oregon are expected to jointly explore more business opportunities related to smart electric cars, semiconductors and green energy, Huang said.

McCabe expressed excitement over the possibilities of better business exchanges with Taiwan and a large part of Asia, which he said would help boost the northwestern state's economy.

McCabe said he was impressed with the advancements in biomedicine and electric vehicles that he saw at the state-funded Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) during a Monday visit.

"I think there are so many similarities between Oregon and Taiwan, and we will be foolish not to take advantage of research and what's going on here for start-up companies that will be coming out from Oregon," McCabe said.

He said that he plans to bring several start-ups to Taiwan next month to seek cooperation opportunities with ITRI.

(By Jeffrey Wu)
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