Global Relationships. Local Opportunity: Orange County Returns to Taiwan
Orange County Economic Development Team with Taiwanese officials.
What started as a relationship-building mission to Taiwan in March 2025 is quickly becoming an important part of Orange County’s long-term strategy to attract advanced technology and manufacturing investment from around the world.
Last spring, Orange County Executive Steve Neuhaus and Orange County Partnership President & CEO Conor Eckert traveled to Taiwan as part of an Orange County delegation attending the Smart City Summit & Expo. The trip provided an opportunity to learn firsthand from one of the world’s leading technology economies while introducing Orange County to companies and government leaders looking toward the U.S. market.
During the visit, the delegation met with leaders in the semiconductor, biotechnology and advanced-manufacturing sectors and explored how Orange County could position itself within Taiwan’s extensive technology supply chain.
The delegation also spent time in Kaohsiung, where discussions centered on smart-city development, digital innovation, and opportunities for longer-term collaboration. Those conversations quickly developed into something more permanent.
Just weeks later, on April 15, Kaohsiung City Government and Orange County formally signed a sister-city agreement, the first sister-city relationship established by Orange County. The agreement grew directly from the relationships established through the Smart City Summit & Expo and created a framework for continued economic, educational, and technological collaboration.
From Semiconductor Supply Chains to Defense Technology
From the beginning, the Partnership saw a natural connection between Taiwan’s technology ecosystem and Orange County’s growing advanced-manufacturing economy.
Orange County offers access to the New York metropolitan market while sitting within the broader Northeast corridor connecting New York, Boston and Washington, D.C. The region also offers shovel-ready industrial sites, existing manufacturing infrastructure, workforce and educational partners, and proximity to major innovation centers. These assets have helped the Partnership make the case for Orange County as a potential U.S. landing point for Taiwanese semiconductor suppliers and other advanced-technology companies.
In September 2026, Neuhaus and Eckert returned to Taiwan with an expanded focus. Semiconductors and advanced manufacturing remain an important part of the strategy, but Orange County is also looking toward the next generation of defense technology, including drones, autonomous systems, artificial intelligence and the advanced components that support them.
A major part of that story is Orange County’s proximity and relationship with the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and the broader innovation ecosystem developing throughout the Hudson Valley. The goal is to connect international technology companies with the research, talent, manufacturing capabilities, and market access available in the region.
Turning Relationships Into Opportunities
During the September mission, the Orange County delegation presented the region to more than 10 technology companies across three cities and met with businesses involved in semiconductors, biotechnology, advanced manufacturing and other emerging technologies.
The delegation also engaged with the Importers and Exporters Association of Taipei to strengthen the pipeline for future foreign direct investment and business collaboration.
Most significantly, Orange County established a collaborative framework with a Taiwanese semiconductor design and drone technology company to explore opportunities involving research and development, workforce training and a potential U.S. presence in Orange County. Taiwanese reporting on the September 18 agreement described plans to evaluate an East Coast operation for or R&D location for SteadyBeat Technology while developing education and applied-research partnerships in areas including AI and autonomous unmanned systems.
These are exactly the types of relationships the Partnership's international business-attraction strategy is designed to build.
Foreign direct investment rarely begins with a site tour or an available building. It starts much earlier, with relationships, trust and making sure Orange County is part of the conversation before a company decides where it will invest.
By returning to Taiwan, maintaining the relationships established in 2025 and introducing more companies to Orange County's assets, the Partnership and County are working to build a long-term pipeline of international opportunities that can ultimately translate into investment and jobs here at home.
Orange County's message to companies considering expansion into the United States is straightforward: our region can provide a soft landing into the U.S. market, with access to talent, infrastructure, advanced-manufacturing capabilities and one of the largest economic corridors in the country.
What began with a trip to Taiwan has grown into a sister-city relationship, new international business connections and tangible opportunities for collaboration.
