[Delegation Report] Kaohsiung at the Crossroads — A City Reinventing Itselft!

On May 22, 2026, the French Chamber Taiwan brought fifty representatives from thirty-two French companies to Kaohsiung for its third annual business delegation — a day that moved from an aerospace facility at dawn to an economic dialogue with the Mayor, and ended with two distinct celebrations of the France-Taiwan partnership.

THE DAY: From Zuoying to City Hall — A Full Day of Engagement

09:00 — ZUOYING STATION

The delegation gathered at Zuoying Station and transferred together to Kaohsiung Airport for the morning programme.

MORNING — NATIONAL AIRBORNE SERVICE

Delegates visited the National Airborne Service helicopter hangar “an Airbus client” for a tour of operational facilities and a technical presentation on the organisation's activities and its Airbus-supported maintenance programmes of the dolphin eurocoptere The visit offered a direct window into the France-Taiwan aerospace partnership in action, speaking directly to Kaohsiung's growing ambitions in dual-use and defence-adjacent industries. Thank you Patrick Musso our board member and head of Asia Hub at Airbus Group

MIDDAY — HAKKA RESTAURANT

A debriefing lunch at a local Hakka restaurant gave delegates time to exchange impressions before the afternoon programme.

AFTERNOON — KAOHSIUNG CITY HALL

The economic dialogue at City Hall was co-presided by Franck Paris, Director of the French Office in Taipei, and Terence Ong, Executive Vice-Chairman of the French Chamber Taiwan, alongside Mayor Chen Chi-Mai, the Deputy Director General of the Economic Development Bureau, and John Ning, Project Manager of the Kaohsiung Smart City Project Office.

EVENING — TWO GATHERINGS

After the official programme, the delegation split: part of the group attended the French Tech event, while the rest proceeded directly to the opening of the French Festival— a multi-day showcase that continued for two more days.

CITY CONTEXT: From Steel to Semiconductors — Kaohsiung's Industrial Transformation

Mayor Chen Chi-Mai opened the dialogue with a message that has become Kaohsiung's defining narrative: the city has shed its industrial past and is now a globally significant hub for technology, clean energy, and sovereign AI. The former oil refinery site — 642 hectares — was fully cleared and decontaminated in three years to make way for TSMC's 2nm fab, which entered mass production in 2025.

"Kaohsiung Speed" — Mayor Chen's phrase for a pace of delivery that, he noted with quiet satisfaction, now surpasses TSMC's own construction timelines.

Beyond semiconductors, Mayor Chen outlined three strategic axes: industrial transformation anchored by the TSMC corridor; deeper Taiwan-France collaboration on dual-use technologies including drones, autonomous maritime systems, and industrial cybersecurity; and a city-wide sovereign AI platform built with NVIDIA — described as the world's most comprehensive city-level AI deployment, integrating data across all municipal departments to address traffic, flood prediction, elderly care, and agricultural optimisation simultaneously.

Franck Paris framed the stakes plainly: southern Taiwan is becoming the next center of gravity for Taiwan's economy, and the France-Taiwan relationship — long rooted in semiconductors and ICT — has every reason to extend into green energy, aerospace, and smart infrastructure.

INNOVATION SHOWCASE: Five Companies, Two Countries

The forum featured five company presentations — three Kaohsiung-based innovators and two French companies — each illustrating a different dimension of the France-Taiwan economic relationship.

EVENING: La French Tech & French Festival — Two Sides of the Partnership

After the official programme at City Hall, the delegation split to cover two complementary events, each expressing a different dimension of France's presence in southern Taiwan.

LOOKING AHEAD: A Relationship Worth Anchoring

The day carried a symbolic dimension that was not lost on delegates. The Kaohsiung Music Center — a venue that normally reserves illumination for international artists of the scale of Blackpink or BTS — was lit in the colours of the French flag in honour of the delegation.

The French Chamber Taiwan will work to maintain active contact with the Kaohsiung Smart City Project Office, facilitate introductions for NunoX ahead of VivaTech Paris, and organise a dedicated EU compliance webinar with Akenatech for French manufacturers and Taiwan-based suppliers exporting to Europe. A fourth edition is planned for 2027.

Kaohsiung's semiconductor corridor and sovereign AI platform are also under consideration as central themes for the French Chamber's flagship Next Taiwan: 2027 and Beyond report, with a mayoral interview to be proposed.

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