State of Idaho Special Announcement at SelectUSA Investment Summit

Good afternoon everyone and welcome. We're over here at the Idaho booth. We want to welcome all of you for attending the SelectUSA Investment Summit. We want to also thank all of our distinguished guests for joining us at the Idaho booth. I'm Tom Keeley, the new director of commerce for the state of Idaho. I'm here on behalf of our governor Brad Little who couldn't join us today because he's attending the Western Governors Association meeting in Colorado. For our announcement and celebration we have several distinguished guests. We have U.S. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross with us. We have the director of the American Institute of Taiwan, Mr. William Brent Christensen. We have the director of the state of Idaho, Asia Trade, Mr. Eddie Yen. And in the audience we have the CEO of the Idaho Dairy Association, Rick Narabow. And of course we have together over 25 Idahoans that are representing Team Idaho here today. Why are we here? We're proud to announce and to welcome a new Taiwan-based company to Idaho. The company will be a long-term strategic partner for our dairy industry and our advanced manufacturing sector. This partnership is the result of foreign investors, the private sector, and our government working together for a number of years to reach the appropriate decision to build a new business in Idaho. Our commerce team helps existing businesses and new businesses expand. We help with job opportunities in high priority industry sectors and across Idaho. Our team guides businesses with exports of goods and services to the world and with FDA, foreign direct investment. We work with communities also to prepare them for growth through infrastructure and site preparation. Why choose Idaho? We are called the gem state for good reasons. If you look at some of our pictures, we have such natural beauty. We have high quality of living. Our government at all levels supports commerce and better jobs. And the best gem, best gems of the state, of course, are the Idahoans. We have grit, determination, ingenuity, and we're very friendly. I'd like to now turn over to Mr. William Brent Christensen for a moment to talk about our venture with Taiwanese, Taiwan Company. Secretary Ross, Idaho Department of Commerce Director Keeley, distinguished guests and friends, I am very pleased to be here today to witness Jeton Biochemistry's announcement of its plans to invest in the state of Idaho. The Idaho-Taiwan connection has a long and productive history. For many years, Idaho has maintained a representative office in Taiwan with Eddie Yen ably promoting Taiwan's interests in the Taiwan market. We were pleased to have former Governor Butch Otter and his delegation visit last fall and look forward to more such visits in the future. As everyone here knows, Taiwan for the second year in a row delivered the largest delegation to the SelectUSA Investment Summit, a clear indication of how strong the U.S.-Taiwan economic partnership has become. Jeton's investment in Idaho is another example of Taiwan's ability to take advantage of investment opportunities identified in this valuable initiative. I congratulate Jeton and the state of Idaho on this important new investment. Thank you very much. Now my privilege to introduce Mr. Eddie Yen. He's the director of the state of Idaho Asia Trade Office. He's been with us since 1988. In over 30 years, he's served Idaho well. He's set up over 100 trade missions. He has a deep knowledge of Idaho and what Taiwan companies need in Idaho. So I'd like to have Mr. Yen talk about our new partner, an investor in Idaho, and he'll describe why this investment and its investors are such a good combination for Idaho. Thank you, Tom. Director Christensen and Secretary Ross. Wow, it's really a great honor to be here to represent the Taiwan-based company Jeton Biochemistry and the CEO, Mr. Lin, to share his investment story in Idaho. I think I can talk about myself better, but today I have the honor to represent Mr. Lin to share his story. I think before I do that, I'd like all the Idahoans to join me to give Jackie Hong a big applause, because without her, the Commercial Service Office in Taiwan's help, and Andrew and your office help, I think this announcement would have not been possible. So thank you, Jackie, and thank you, Andrew. You know, the story was started back in 2016. Jackie's office hosted a SelectUSA Roadshow in central Taiwan, Taichung, and that's where I met with Mr. Lin and started our kind of discussion. So it's a long process. It took us two and a half years to start from zero and all the way to the decision. But this case really demonstrated that a small and medium-sized company's investment opportunity in the U.S. is possible. And with all the support from the government, as Tom just mentioned, and the industry, Mr. Lin wanted me to say two messages while he made the decision. The first is the people. Mr. Lin made his fifth trip last month, and in his five times visit, he had kind of seen and was so impressed with the teamwork that my colleague from the commerce side and from the kind of agricultural side has shown to him. You know, I always say my colleague in the commerce and the ag always makes me look good, always can help me to kind of do a much better job. So whenever Mr. Lin comes, my colleague from the ag, because it's an ag-related kind of industry, so they will help to make all the appointments and visits. And my commerce kind of colleague will help to set up a meeting with a lawyer, a developer, even set up a meeting to discuss some of the kind of legal issues, incentives. So it's really a great demonstration of teamwork, of the commerce and the ag, and also the people of the companies that Mr. Lin has met. And he has been impressed with how committed those Idaho companies have shown to him. So they are so willing to work with him and also to make the investment successful. And another reason for Mr. Lin to make a decision is the products. Idaho has, as many of you know, Idaho has a very, very strong dairy supply chain. And that really fit into J-10's investment so well, because J-10 will use millions kind of pound of ingredients, which Idaho has been very strong at, every year to make dairy formula and health product for elderly people, and also for sports kind of a gym kind of a lover. And so that product has a very good complementary kind of a cooperation with the ingredient supplier from Idaho. So there's no direct competition with our supplier, but they will help our ingredient supplier to export lots of the kind of ingredient to overseas. And all the products Mr. Lin, J-10 will be making in Idaho will be mainly for export. So on behalf of Mr. Lin, I think he is looking forward to kind of accelerating the planned kind of construction and to start business in Idaho. And he, I want me to give his a big thank to Adam, the Idaho team, and also the direct family. And of course, thank you for coming, Secretary Ross. And so thank you everyone. And thank you for coming. And we look forward to have more kind of support and, you know, business, you know, send them to Idaho. Now it's my honor and privilege to have U.S. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross join us today. He's had an illustrious and distinguished career in business and commerce globally. His, your select team, SelectUSA team, Brian Lenahan, the executive director, has done an excellent job this year. We appreciate that. And it's very important foreign direct investments for Idaho and the U.S. Mr. Ross. Well, thank you. This is the second announcement we've had of a new investment here at SelectUSA. So I'm very pleased we're just in the early days of the conference, and hopefully there'll be even more to come. It's truly impressive that Idaho has an economic development officer who's focused solely on foreign direct investment from Taiwan. It's a very clever initiative on the part of the state, and I congratulate you for your foresight and for the success of it. Eddie Yen, congratulations on your success, and thank you too for being here. Last year, I shared the stage at this summit with your governor for a similar announcement by another company, and I'm happy to be with you again to congratulate the executives from Jeton Biochemistry for selecting the great state of Idaho for their new facility. Idaho is ideal for your production since it's such a top dairy producing state. To the executives at Jeton Biochemistry, you're going to love being in Idaho. It's wide open vistas, the splendor of the snow-capped mountains with bluffs and canyonlands, the weather and the wilderness, the lore and the culture of the Wild West, the great workforce, and of course, the cattle. Your investment in a manufacturing facility in Nampa gives your company access to the highest quality inputs, and it creates more than 25 jobs in southwestern Idaho. So my sincere congratulations to all of you in the Idaho Department of Commerce, to the executive team at Jeton Biochemistry, and to all the folks involved in SelectUSA in helping bring this new investment partnership to fruition. It's my honor to be here to celebrate with you. Enjoy the rest of the evening. Again, thanks to all of our distinguished guests for coming today. And before we break, I also want to give a special heartfelt thanks to our team, Jennifer, Autumn, for all the great work, Eddie, and all the 25 or more, Team Idaho. Go Team Idaho. Thank you very much.