(July 2, 2025 – New York City) – During the Top7 Conference & Announcement in Las Rozas de Madrid, Spain, the Intelligent Community Forum announced that Yunlin County, Taiwan, has achieved Provisional Certification as an Intelligent Community.

The Yunlin County, Taiwan delegation at the Top7 Conference & Announcement in Las Rozas de Madrid, Spain (June 16, 2025)

Primarily known for its agriculture, Yunlin County is comprised of 19 townships and has a population of around 660,000 people. About a decade ago, it was facing the challenges of an aging workforce and an exodus of youth. The county responded by forming a Local Revitalization Office in 2019, which has shaped a new Yunlin using resources from industry, government and academia. The county has since emerged as a prime example of how rural regions can leverage intelligent community development practices to foster comprehensive growth and development while maintaining the strength of their cultural heritage and traditional industries.

“Yunlin is a great example of a county with a rural economy that gained the support it needed to deploy broadband to employers and residents, then used it as a foundation for building a new economy,” said ICF co-founder Robert Bell. “That’s intelligent by anyone’s definition. It’s also a message to rural economies around the world: change begins when you believe it can happen and rally others to your cause.”

Meeting ICF’s Certification standard provides objective validation that a community has high-quality connectivity, effective workforce development, a business innovation ecosystem and meaningful community engagement, digital inclusion and sustainability programs in place. These qualities combine to support the growth of innovative businesses, meet their talent needs and provide inclusive prosperity and a high quality of life.

Yunlin County is the second community in Taiwan to be Certified as an Intelligent Community. In 2024, its first year participating in the Intelligent Community Awards Program, Yunlin County was named a Top7 Intelligent Community.

“Since my first visit to Yunlin County, I’ve witnessed a remarkable transformation taking place,” said Peter Portheine, who also serves as a Strategic Advisor for ICF and as Economic Development Lead for BABLE Smart Cities. “Yunlin’s leaders, focusing on establishing an international identity, showcase their leading agricultural position and their industrial and tourism potential. They continue to prove themselves as a rising global example of what intelligent rural development can achieve.” Mr. Portheine has been working closely with Yunlin County on their Intelligent Community journey since conducting a site visit to Yunlin in September 2024.

Yunlin County’s Provisional Certification status remains in place for one year, during which time the County may opt to pursue Full Certification. For more information on Intelligent Community Certification, click here.

About Yunlin County

Yunlin County, comprised of 19 townships and the county seat of Douliu, is found on the fertile Chianan Plain on the western coast of Taiwan. Its rich farmland and many rivers have made the county an agrarian center, producing crops such as pomelo, tea leaves, suan cai, papaya and melon and also housing a large number of fisheries and fishing ports along the coastline. Yunlin County’s land is prized for its beauty in addition to its bounty, and the county is home to the first temple theme park of Taiwan, as well as some of the most prominent Mazu temples in the country. Yunlin also houses the nation’s largest agarwood forest park and the magnificent Penglai Waterfall in Penny’s Water Creek Valley.

In recent years, Yunlin has faced the challenges of an aging workforce and exodus of youth. The county responded in 2019 with the establishment of the Local Revitalization Office tasked with shaping a new Yunlin using resources from industry, government and academia. Free WiFi is offered in 219 public places throughout the county. Its agricultural sector adopted new climate-smart agricultural practices and IoT digitalization. To prepare its children for the future, the county instituted a STEAM program for students called Transforming Destiny. And its 100% Waste Recycled program, which turns waste into a substitute for coal, makes Yunlin a model for the waste-to-energy circular economy. More from the ICF profile of Yunlin County.

About Intelligent Community Certification
Intelligent Community Certification is an economic development credential based on ICF’s Community Accelerator Strategy and analytic methods developed over two decades of research and work with more than 200 communities around the world. It is provided in two stages. In the first stage, the municipality, county or region completes an online questionnaire with guidance from ICF. It reports on connectivity, workforce development, public and private-sector innovation, digital inclusion, public engagement and sustainability and resilience. ICF applies its proven analytic methods to the data provided in the completed questionnaire and produces both detailed and summary scoring. Communities whose summary score meets or exceeds the standard receive Provisional Certification based on this self-reported data, and the certification must be renewed yearly to remain in effect.

Full Certification requires an onsite audit by ICF. In a site visit, an ICF auditor validates the information provided by the community for its Provisional Certification and learns more about the programs and practices that make it an Intelligent Community. Following the audit, the auditor prepares a report detailing results and updates the scoring of the community based on the audit. Communities whose summary score meets or exceeds the standard receive Full Certification, which is good for three years.

Intelligent Community Certification is based on a set of standards described in detail on the ICF website.

About the Intelligent Community Forum
Starting in 2000 with a research project comparing cities in various nations, the Intelligent Community Forum (www.intelligentcommunity.org) created a unique, data-driven approach to development that puts citizens first while tapping the enormous economic and social potential of technology. In a world dominated by digital, ICF’s mission is to help communities create innovative, sustainable and growing economies, inclusive societies and affirming cultures open to the world. We do it for communities large and small – in urban clusters, outlying suburbs and rural places – through training, consulting, assessment, certification and award programs. ICF believes that digital connectivity and technology create the opportunity for almost every community to develop a dynamic local economy and the social and cultural strengths that go with it – giving them all a chance to be great places to live, work, learn, grow, raise a family and prepare a sustainable path for the next generation.

The Forum sponsors Institutes in North America and Taiwan dedicated to the study of the movement, and national organizations in Canada and Taiwan, both home to many Intelligent Communities. In 2012 ICF was invited to participate at the Nobel Peace Prize conference in Oslo and in 2014, its model and work were recognized by the U.S. Department of Commerce under the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act, which, according to the American government, was “aimed at creating a more flexible and responsive system of workforce development to meet the needs of employers looking to fill 21st century jobs.”

For more details on the Intelligent Community Forum’s programs and publications, go to www.intelligentcommunity.org.

Intelligent Community Forum Contacts
Matthew Owen, Executive Director, Intelligent Community Forum
Phone: 001-646-291-6166 x105
Email: [email protected]
Twitter: @Newcommunities

Victoria Krisman, Communications Manager, Intelligent Community Forum
Email: [email protected]