Daejeon Mayor Lee Jang-woo on Wednesday visited Hsinchu City, northwest of Taiwan, to seek technological cooperation between the two cities with an aim of turning Daejeon into Asia's Silicon Valley.

Lee visited the Hsinchu Science Park, Taiwan’s national industrial complex built in 1980 which currently houses over 500 acclaimed technology companies, including TSCM, ASE and MediaTek.

There, the mayor and officials from the industrial complex discussed Hsinchu’s history of nurturing local businesses into international tech companies, according to the Daejeon city government.

Lee also visited the Industrial Technology Research Institute known as an agency that played a crucial part in transforming Taiwan's labor-intensive industries into innovation-driven ones.

Taiwan's achievement in system semiconductor manufacturing has inspired Daejeon's drive to build an advanced industrial complex, dubbed Daedeok Innopolis, according to Lee.

“Daejeon should learn from ITRI, as the institution’s studies and achievements have also led to the prosperity of local entrepreneurship,” Lee said.

Daejeon and Hsinchu share similarities in the course of their developments as both the cities were established through the state's drive to nurture technology. Lee expressed his hopes to maintain close ties with Hsinchu to further develop the cities into Asia’s most advanced tech sector complexes.

According to Lee's office, the mayor signed a memorandum of understanding with Hsinchu Mayor Kao Hung-an on expanding cooperation in technology.

By Lee Kwon-hyung (kwonhl@heraldcorp.com) and Hwang Joo-young (flylikekite@heraldcorp.com)