Secretariat, Taipei City Government

From 8 to 18 March, Taipei City Mayor Ko Wen-Je headed a delegation of Taipei officials and trade representatives to San Francisco, Phoenix and Los Angeles. Officials from Taipei City Hall included Deputy Mayor Charles Lin, Commissioner Lin Chong Jie from the Department of Economic Development, Commissioner Huang Shi Jie from the Department of Health and Commissioner Xie Pei Xia from the Department of Cultural Affairs. Taipei City councilmen Kao Jia Yu, Wang Ming Sheng and Wang Wei Zhong were also part of the group, along with around a dozen Taipei City trade representatives.
Mayor Ko first visited San Francisco from 8 to 12 March. On the first day, Mayor Ko visited San Francisco Mayor Lee and talked about their success in start-up industries. They were also joined by three other Bay Area mayors and a senator for an investment forum on Taipei City. The mayors and the senator were the main panel promoting Taipei to potential investors during the forum. The mayor also visited well-known technological companies in Silicon Valley, such as Cisco, Tesla, Google and Thermal Fisher, in order to understand how these companies have achieved such success in their industries.
On 13 and 14 March, Mayor Ko met with members of the Phoenix government, Phoenix Senate and city officials. During his stay, the mayor was presented by the Senate with Certificates of Recognition and a certificate in testament to our long lasting sister-city relationship. The mayor received a standing ovation as he accepted the certificate—a huge honour for Taipei City. In the evening, Mayor Ko met with Phoenix city officials and sister-city officials for dinner. The next day, Mayor Ko met with Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton for lunch at Arizona University, where they talked about their experience and further deepened the friendship between our two cities.
On 15 March, Mayor Ko made his last stop, in Los Angeles, and met with Supervisor Hilda Solis and Mayor Eric Garcetti to discuss possible economic development between our two cities. In the evening, Mayor Ko attended a dinner party hosted by Southern California Taiwanese American and was presented with an official Federal Certificate of Recognition by the federal government, the Californian State government and the San Bernardino County government, acknowledging the Mayor’s dedication to building on the relationship between Taiwan and the US.
On 16 March, Mayor Ko visited the California Technology Institute, UCLA Center for World Health, UCLA Reagan Medical Center and the California Nanosystems Institute to find out about the latest in medical technology. Mayor Ko also met with AIT director Raymond F Burghardt to assure him of his intentions to maintain the good relationship between Taiwan and the US. In the evening, to conclude his US visit, Mayor Ko dined with Taiwanese international students and professors from UCLA (more than 150 people in total).
By visiting our sister cities—San Francisco, Phoenix and Los Angeles—, Mayor Ko was able to build even stronger relationships with city officials and to look at crucial construction milestones within the cities. The trip to San Francisco also proved fruitful in that he was able to propose strategic alliances to venture capitalists, examine important Silicon Valley biotech and ICT companies and also promote Taipei City to various industries in terms of our Smart City strategy and our high-tech industrial innovation. The delegation hopes that this trip will enable Taipei and its American sister cities to collaborate in industry exchanges, attract more investment from each other and cooperate on municipal planning in the future.