The city of Taichung in central Taiwan is a county-sized municipality that is home to nearly three million people. Its urban cluster hosts a major seaport and service economy, while its rural areas are agricultural and industrial. Aside from the seaport, the backbone of its industrial economy consists of 1,500 precision machinery makers and tens of thousands of SME suppliers.

Precision manufacturing offered growth potential in an advanced economy like that of Taiwan. The question was how to unleash it – and city government hit on a unique solution. By sharing the costs of software licensing, Taichung's government enabled manufacturers to bid and win jobs with major corporations that were previously out of reach. They also reduced their own purchasing costs while gaining a competitive edge on smaller vendors in other cities.

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Learn from Taichung and 21 other communities in Accelerating Your Economic Development, a discount bundle of courses in the Community Accelerator online training program. Taichung is profiled in the course on Connectivity: Foundation of Digital Opportunity.  

How did Taichung do it? ICF tells the story in an online profile - one of hundreds on our site that takes you inside technology-centric development of communities that builds inclusive prosperity, strengthens societies and enriches local culture.

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