Gov. Greg Abbott leads delegation on 3-nation East Asia tour to promote Texas business

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott will arrive in Taiwan Saturday–likely late Friday Texas time–to begin a weeklong trip to three East Asian countries to promote the Lone Star State as the ideal place to do business.

Accompanied by First Lady Cecilia Abbott, Secretary of State Jane Nelson and a large delegation of business leaders, Abbott will visit Taiwan, South Korea and Japan to meet political and business leaders from a part of the world that has become increasingly important to the state economy.

The three East Asian nations are among Texas’ top 10 economic partners, accounting for a combined $84.5 billion in trade last year.

“It’s essential to develop relationships in Korea, Japan and Taiwan,” said Plano Mayor John Muns, who is not part of Abbott’s trip but has visited the three countries on behalf of his city, which has thriving Asian communities.

“They need to have a level of trust in who they are working with. Once they feel comfortable that the relationship is just as important to you as it is for them, then they are ready to talk business,” Muns said.

Large companies from all three countries on Abbott’s itinerary play a huge role in the North Texas economy, but smaller companies have a significant local impact as well, he said.

“They’ve made their way to North Texas as well, so that’s pretty impressive,” Muns said.

Ron Kirk, a former U.S. trade representative under President Barack Obama and a former Dallas mayor, said the Abbott trip is important because foreign investment, particularly by companies moving to Texas, brings jobs to the state.

“No state benefits more from our global economic engagement than the state of Texas. It’s huge for us,” Kirk said.

With Texas facing competition from states on both coasts, Kirk added, “you have to be out telling the story.”

“The good thing is, we have a good story to tell,” he said.

With rich economic opportunities at stake, Kirk said he’d like to see Texas leaders refrain from anti-immigrant rhetoric related to the border security debate.

“Texas has to guard against the anti-immigrant rhetoric, the talk about putting walls up, because it doesn’t match what the governor is trying to sell,” Kirk said. “With the anti-immigrant rhetoric and then his message welcoming people to the state for business, he’s got a little bit of a needle to thread.”

Abbott, who’s also represented the state on trips to India, has made fostering trade relations with Asia one of his priorities.

His visit to East Asia comes as tensions have risen between America and two regional powers – China and North Korea. His trip doesn’t include China, though some Chinese Americans in Texas say it would make sense to develop a relationship with the economic powerhouse.

Abbott has a full schedule.

He’ll start his trip on Sunday in Taipei, where he’ll join officials in opening a Texas Taiwan office designed to bolster business relationships.

The nation, critical to the world’s economy, is Texas’ seventh-largest trade partner, totaling $21.3 billion in 2023.

Taiwan is the world’s largest producer of semiconductors, providing more than 90% of advanced chips used in cell phones, aircraft, electric vehicles and artificial intelligence.

“Opening that office will be very important,” said Dr. Charles Ku, a retired dentist from Flower Mound who moved from Taiwan to Texas in 1967 to attend Baylor University. “We will have quite a few more companies move to North Texas, and then you’ll benefit with job creation.”

Texas businesses and Taiwan-based companies in Texas are taking advantage of the demand to produce semiconductors.

GlobiTech, a subsidiary of Taiwan-based GlobalWafer Co., is building a $5 billion silicon wafer plant in Sherman that is expected to create at least 1,500 new jobs. As an incentive to build, Texas provided a $15 million cash grant from its enterprise fund.

Dallas-based Texas Instruments is also investing in Sherman, spending up to $30 billion to build as many as four new semiconductor fabrication plants in the city north of Dallas.

Other Taiwanese businesses are headed to North Texas, including Sysgration America Corp., an electronics manufacturer that plans to move into a 98,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Plano.

According to Abbott’s office, Taiwan in 2022 led all nations in foreign direct investment in Texas with more than $5 billion. Over the past 10 years, Taiwanese companies have created more than 2,200 jobs in Texas.

“All the big companies have to buy chips from Taiwan, so the AI industry there is booming,” Ku said. “It’s important that Abbott make the trip and continue to develop relationships.”

Abbott’s visit comes as tensions continue between China and Taiwan.

Taiwan has been independently governed since 1949, but China views the island as part of its territory and hasn’t ruled out the use of force to unify the nations.

“We are all concerned about the situation in China and Taiwan,” Ku said. “We have relatives living in Taiwan, and we are concerned. The only way to deal with it is to just make friends.”

Abbott will also seek to strengthen ties with South Korea, the second nation on his travel schedule, where he and the delegation will meet with business leaders and tour Samsung facilities.

According to his office, over the past decade companies from South Korea have invested $20.6 billion in 38 projects in Texas, creating more than 7,000 jobs. Last year, Texas trade with South Korea totaled $32 billion.

According to the Dallas Regional Chamber, top companies with South Korean parent companies include Samsung Electronics America, Nautilus Hyosung America, LG Electronics and Harman International Industries.

“Texas is a very business friendly state,” said John Lee, former chairman of the Greater Dallas Korean American Chamber of Commerce.

Lee said Texas could build on its success in luring South Korean companies to the state.

“You see Kia, Honda and all of these guys in Georgia and Alabama,” he said. “At some point it would be nice to see if we can get another tier of Korean companies to come to Dallas.”

Abbott will end his trip in Japan, where he’ll make stops in Nagoya and Tokyo, board a bullet train and meet with business and political leaders.

According to Abbott’s office, Japan leads all nations in the number of Texas jobs created by foreign direct investment projects over the last decade. During that time, companies from Japan have invested $10.87 billion in 129 projects, creating more than 20,000 Texas jobs.

Trade with Japan totaled $31.2 billion last year, making Japan the fifth-largest total trade partner with Texas.

Japan’s greatest influence on the Texas economy is in Plano, where more than 4,000 people work at Toyota’s American headquarters.

According to the Dallas Regional Chamber, other top North Texas companies from Japan include 7-Eleven, Fujitsu Network Communications, Nissan and NTT Data Inc.

Sam Shichijo, honorary consul of Japan in Dallas, said 290 Japanese companies operate in North Texas.

“Texas does a lot of business with Japan,” he said. “That’s why that relationship is so important.”

Shichijo said about 4,700 Japanese nationals live in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, a number that has risen about 6% annually over the past 10 years.

“The Japanese population is certainly growing in North Texas,” he said.

Abbott, who returns to Texas on July 13, is not visiting China. Some Chinese immigrants say he should.

Jarlin Jia, a leader in the North Texas Chinese community, said that in 2023 Texas exported $25.7 billion in goods to China, up from $21.8 billion in 2022. That made Texas the state with the highest value of trade goods exported to China, she said.

But the relationship between Texas and China has had friction. Last year, the Texas Legislature debated several bills seeking to ban citizens and businesses from China, Iran, North Korea and Russia, or the governments, from buying property in Texas — with limited exceptions, for instance for people with dual U.S. citizenship.

“China is a very important business partner with Texas,” Jia said. “It’s important for Texas to have a relationship with China because we are business partners. We need to know each other and better understand each other.”