At the Oct. 12 meeting, the Taylor City Council heard a presentation from Dave Porter, the executive director of the Williamson County Economic Development Partnership, which sponsored a second business recruitment trip Sept. 9-16 to South Korea with a delegation of 16 city and county leaders, including County Judge Bill Gravell, Precinct 4 Commissioner Russ Boles, Mayor Brandt Rydell, City Manager Brian LaBorde, City Engineer Jacob Walker and Regina Jo Carlson with the Taylor Economic Development Corporation.
“Now, manufacturing is coming back in a hurry (to the United States), and Taylor, Texas you are the prime spot in Texas,” Porter said. “You already attracted a homerun in Samsung (Austin Semiconductor). But now you are attracting the suppliers. You are attracting interest from other industry sectors for Williamson County and Central Texas because of the great work you all have done in bringing Samsung to Taylor.”
Samsung Austin Semiconductor is a local subsidiary of South Korean-based Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.”
Porter said to help assist the hundreds of suppliers and other businesses seeking to set up near Samsung, Wilco EDP recently opened up a satellite office in Seoul, South Korea, with guidance from KOTRA, the Korean department of commerce, which has also set up an office in Austin to help Korean companies acclimate to the new environment.
“There is a language barrier,” Porter said. “There is a cultural barrier, and then there is a way of doing business barrier. It’s totally different.”
Porter said during the trip, Wilco EDP hosted a half-day seminar on “Doing Business in Williamson County, Texas” that was attended by more than 100 companies as well as the economic leaders from all over the county who were able to dialogue with potential South Korean partners.
“It’s very important in my mind that we go as representatives of this county to see the massive investments that Samsung is doing in Pyeongtae, and as you know Taylor is being modeled after what they are doing in Pyeongtaek … with eight semiconductor fabs and 85,000 employees. It’s hard to describe until you see it.”
Porter said his office has generated nine leads from their efforts and will have several upcoming announcements of major manufacturing facilities being set up in the county.
Rydell, who also participated in the delegation to Korea in April organized Wilco EDP, the Taylor EDC and Samsung, said it’s also hard to overstate the visibility of Taylor, which is called ‘Taylor City’ in Korea.
“I had a Korean attorney tell me that many Koreans know Austin, but all Koreans know ‘Taylor City’ because Samsung has such a presence in the economy that everything Samsung does is big news,” Rydell said. “So, I think this puts Taylor in a unique leadership role because there are so many companies that are looking to do business here. Taylor can’t and shouldn’t accommodate 200 suppliers. It’s not feasible. But from the standpoint that Taylor as a magnet can help bring those companies hopefully to Williamson County, but more broadly to Central Texas, I think that’s going to be critical.”
