House Standing Committee on Economic Development & Technology

Okay. Good morning, everyone. We're in Room 423. It is March 27, 2026 at 9:31am. This is the 9:30 agenda for ECD. We are joined here with Chair Ilagan, Representative Templo, and Ikaika Hussey. Okay. Morning hearings must adjourn prior to floor session. Not all testifiers may have the opportunity to testify. In that event, please know that your written testimony will be considered by the committee.

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We're gonna start this morning with HCR 191. For this measure, we have one support, none in opposition, one with comments. Would anyone like to testify?

Joe with the DBEDT for Acting Administrator Jennifer Chun. We submitted written.

Okay. Thanks. Any further testimony?

Aloha, Vice Chair Hussey. This is Nicole Woo from HCAN Speaks.

Good morning.

Good morning. You know, we advocate for families with children, and I spent ten years at an economic policy think tank in DC where we talked about GDP, our standard economic growth measures all the time. But we know here in Hawaii, families actually start to fall behind when economic growth happens sometimes because that can lead to more expensive prices.

The GPI we think would provide a more accurate picture of things like cost of living, environmental quality, and the value of unpaid caregiving. And we know that DBEDT did a report with the Genuine Progress Indicator in the past, so they know we can do it. So we think this would be a great help to you and your colleagues in understanding whether or not the economic policies that you pass are aligned with the quality of life for our families. We support this resolution. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Any further testimony? And I'm gonna assume that this is both for HCR 191 and HR 181.

Yes. It is. Thank you.

Excellent. Thank you. Any questions from the committee? Okay. I have one question for DBEDT, which is the your testimony in the case that you would like to scale back the scope of the of the resolution in order to accommodate budget concerns. And I just wanted to ask if there's openness from the department to to actually to come back to the legislature to ask for more money, if that is really the the primary concern, you know, just to...

Yes. We are, we are open to that. We do collect the data on an annual basis, and so we are collecting the data regardless. It's my understanding that this would just enhance the scope of the analysis. We put in our comments that we're happy to do it as long as resources are available. However, on an annual basis, there may be certain years where we're constrained and may not be able to do it.

Data is available in a completely public, accessible format?

It is. Yeah. Yeah. It's on the DBEDT website. Yeah.

Thanks very much. Okay. Any other questions from the committee? All right.

Let's move to HR 227. There's no testimony submitted on this measure. Would anyone here like to testify?

Sherry Lee Van, Vice Chair Hussey and members of the committee. Rick Manayan on behalf of Creative Industries of DVED. We submitted testimony late so it actually was loaded up to the website, but we are in, we stand by our written testimony in support of HR27, George's DBEDT to establish a three year business plan for the future of Hawaii film studios.

Great. Thank you very much.

Thank you for the opportunity to testify.

Absolutely. Any further testimony? Anyone on Zoom? Any questions? Okay.

HCR24, HR2 I'm sorry, HR23. We had one testimony in support. Is ADC here? Did they wanna speak? Okay.

Does anyone else want to testify on htr 24 and hr 23? Any questions from the committee? All right. So let's move on then to HCR 66, HR 60. So for this measure, we have one testimony with comments.

Would anyone like to testify?

Oh, we stand on our written testimony with comments, so we're to do the research.

Okay. Great. Any questions from the committee? Okay.

Let's move to the next measure, HCR 189, HR 179. There was one testimony with comments. Would anyone like to testify? Okay. Thanks. Actually, I have one question. Well, any questions for the committee? I have one question for you, DOTAX. So your testimony indicated that you don't have access to that, to the requisite data?

Not all of it. It's difficult to obtain information from foreign subsidiaries of companies because, depending on how the tax law is applied, a corporation might not be required to report even the existence of those foreign subsidiaries if they have no connection to Hawaii whatsoever. So in those cases, we wouldn't be able to have any data on those specific foreign corporations. Just something to keep in mind.

Thank you very much. Oh, please.

Is it because of federal laws?

Part of it is when it comes to corporate income tax reporting. Usually Hawaii starts with what the federal requirements are and then we conform and we might deviate on certain requirements. But my understanding is there isn't anything necessarily preventing Hawaii from saying, hey, company A.

If you have business in Hawaii, you need to tell us whether these other entities exist or not. It's just an open question as to whether Hawaii can tax those foreign entities, if that makes sense. So the reporting itself might be possible, but at this point in time, we don't have that information.

Could you identify if it's federal regulations that prevent you or if it's state or lack of a state statute that prevents you from taking the information that you need?

Yeah. I think that could be possible. And I think in our testimony we also mentioned that there are some things we could do with regards to this study. So I think in our last paragraph, we do say that DOTAX does have the capacity to conduct an analysis on the administrative feasibility of alternate reporting structures. So I would imagine that part of that analysis would be answering your question. Yeah.

So you don't need any sort of amendment? I mean, you can already do it on your own.

For that specific question, I think that could be possible. Yeah.

Thank you.

It's a great question. Okay. Any further questions from our committee? Okay. Next measure is HCR 153, HR 145. There's no testimony submitted. Would anyone here like to testify on these resos? Anyone on Zoom? Okay. Any questions from the committee?

Okay. HCR 183. HR 173. For this- for this measure, we have two in support, one with comments. Would anyone like to testify on these residents?

Okay. Anyone on Zoom? Any questions or more? Okay. Zooming right along.

Next measure is HCR 36. We have three in support. None of, yeah, that's it. Three in support. Would anyone like to testify?

Aloha chair, vice chair, committee members, Dennis Ling, from DBEDT. DBEDT stands in strong support of this measure. There are very strong cultural and historical ties with the prefecture of Okayama, as well as strong community support from the Okayama Kenjin Kai, which is a prefecture club in Hawaii of Hawaii residents. And the governor of Okayama is very strong in his wanting and desire to be associated with things with Hawaii, educational, economic development. So we have very strong government to government support.

So there's the people to people connection, and then there is the government to government connection. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Any further testimony? Okay. Let's move this to HCR 197 HR 187. For this measure, we have seven in support.

Would anyone like to testify?

Aloha, Chair, Vice Chair, Committee members, Dennis Ling. DBEDT stands in strong support of this, resolution, with Yamagata Prefecture. There are once again strong cultural and historical ties between the two. There is a lot of support from government also. The governor of Yamagata Prefecture, She also has sent in a letter of support for this.

And, we feel that in the areas of agriculture and culinary, there may be very strong connections, especially in the rice growing, which is happening on Kauai and in the exchange of culinary activities. Thank you very much.

Thank you very much. Sir?

Good morning, Chair, Vice Chair, Milton Kwock with the Hawaii Yamagata Ken Jinkai. I'd like to stand on my on my testimony in support, but the reason I'm up here is I also wanted to make note that, late, yesterday afternoon, I did receive a letter of support from the governor, Governor Yoshimura from Yamagata. Unfortunately, we weren't able to get it, you know, into the pipeline, but, I I've left copies for the committee members. So again, we appreciate your your support also.

Thank you again. Thank you very much. Any further testifiers on Zoom or in person? Okay. Any questions from our committee?

Milton, thank you for your work on this. Could you, do you happen to have any sort of information about any economic development partnership with this prefecture in Hawaii? MR.

Chair, currently, as is the case in many of our sister relationships, we are very strong when it we're very strong when it comes into imports into Hawaii. So, you know, we're talking we and you'll see it in the testimony. You talk about Tsuya-Hime rice, so it's a super premium rice. And other things like produce and processed foods. In fact, one of the reasons why a delegation from Kauai actually went to visit Yamagata was because of the rice growing.

So because of that level of expertise that they have, the people of Kauai were looking as this as an opening for the people in Kauai to actually resurrect their rice. So if you're familiar, they do they did grow rice on Kauai. And they're looking at, resurrecting this using some of the technology that they learned from Yamagata so that they could, be more self sustaining.

So, you know, you've seen in the media a lot of us talk about trying to meet these these these points of self sustainment, and this is one way that we're looking to do it, to partner partner with Yamagata and their technology. And then at the same time, on the tourism level, we're looking to actually help Yamagata actually kind of boost up the outflow of tourists from Hawaii and The US.into Yamagata.

How nice.

Thank you, Milton. Thank you very much.

Could I please? I have a question.

Yes.

I think we have an opportunity for economic development, and these sister state, relations are the key for that. And one of the areas that Milton mentioned is there's premium rice that's being imported from Japan to Hawaii. Do we have any sort of, like, price data or dashboard or information that we can share to the public on what might be an opportunity for them to let's say, a business, an entrepreneur decides, let's say, in Kauai, to now start up a rice shop.

And now they know who to import from. Do we have some sort of like a list of that kind of opportunity that we can share to the public? So those who are interested in starting their own store may just look at the list of easy, accessible imports and be able to stop, start their own shop. Do we have something like that?

No, we don't. To be honest,

I think we need to figure out what that could look like Because we have all these connections, not only this prefecture of other sister, country or states and other countries that if we know what their possibility of imports here to Hawaii, or maybe we can get a list from them on what they want exported from Hawaii, there might be entrepreneurs who can look at that list and they can say, hey. I wanna start up a business, and this is the opportunities, the needs, the market that I can tap into. I think that would give a lot of benefit to the public, especially in the business side, and that kinda data can drive new emerging businesses. So if you could look into the possibility of figuring that out, I think we need to start something.

Yeah. I I agree with you. Experts are, you know, pretty much top of our agenda to getting more Hawaii products into, outside of the state, not only on the Mainland, but also internationally. But also imports, on the import side, getting such a list would help us determine import substitution, for one thing, but also how we can refine and, add value to the import. Could be raw material or material that is, not in its finished state, but can be improved upon in Hawaii. But it's cheaper to get the raw materials from the imported side. So, yes, that would be very helpful. And I I'm trying to think now how to get it done.

You don't have to figure it out right now. I I'm just saying that I believe the opportunity where government should start focusing on is providing the public data and allow the market to determine what sort of businesses to start. Instead of government deciding what business to start And then subsidizing it, We should be subsidizing the data collection and then allow these entrepreneurs to figure out that there is a market someplace and tap into whatever business they wanna create from that. That's that's kinda where I'm going with. And if you could create some sort of framework and give us a proposal, I would like to figure out how to support you.

Oh, okay. Thank you very much. We do have a tremendous research and economic analysis division. So Perfect.

Thank you.

Yep. Mr. Kwock, please.

Chair, committee, I actually you bring up a very good a very good point because from the private sector area, Sun Noodle and the rice factory have been at the forefront of helping to introduce more of the super premium Tsuya- Hime rice from Yamagata. Oh, cool.

Excuse me? Kubota. Kubota?

Well, that's sake. Right? Yeah. That's true. And sake, but

I know what that is. Yes. That's important too. That's right.

And what happens is to the point where Sun Noodle had actually given up the the rights to actually promote Tsuya-Hime as a super premium and pass it on to the rice factory because they wanted to, in turn, promote a kind of a mid range. So it's still a premium, but a mid range rice for, you know, for the consumers in not only in Hawaii but in The US. And the other thing is Yamagata sends a delegation annually.

In fact, they're coming up, I believe Dennis, is it in May? I'm not sure when.

Well, it's planned for July.

Well, not for the sister state, but for anyway, the delegate they normally send in a delegation to promote Tsuya-Hime products. So they go to the various stores, Marukai, Don Quixote, jeez, I have a brain fart here. But, you know, many as well as going individually to restaurants. So you have individual Japanese restaurants and regular restaurants that use a lot of rice that, you know, they're they're actually trying to get them to use more of the Tsuya-Hime rice, as well as that mid range rice. So, yeah. So at least on the private sector side, there is efforts.

And again, you know, it's driven by profit. Right? You know, so having a a product that people want at at a competitive price and not having to go to Japan to consume it, and this is something that they're looking at.

Thank you. Actually, mister Kwock, before you step before you step away Yes. You were speaking earlier to the I guess the essentially trade imbalance between Hawaii and Japan with regards to rice and other commodities. I'm wondering if you had a sense of the the appetite within the Japanese consumer market to purchase rice. Like, for instance, if Hawaii were gonna make a premium rice, is there an export market from Hawaii to Japan for a product of that nature?

Thank you.

You know, I'll tell you something. I have I have two points that I wanna bring up here. I think, yes, there's an opportunity. And something that I would bring up, not so much on the sake side, but on the Soju side, you know, there are producers here in Hawaii that produce both Soju and sake.

And just as a commodity that the Japanese tourists are interested in, just to bring back as an or a gift, that's certain there certainly is a market there. So whether it's rice or something else, I'd like to bring up the the point that DBEDT had actually gone to FoodEx just recently. And while they were there at FoodEx in Tokyo, they also went, to visit Yamagata, prefecture.

And in September, if if, DBEDT continues to to look towards, a program called the Tokyo International Gift Show in the first week of September, this is an opportunity for the the companies in Yamagata and, you know, as well as other Japanese prefectures to actually come to this huge huge gift show to see made in Hawaii products.

So you know, I mean, you think about macadamia nuts, you think about chocolates, maybe-maybe coffee, but there's so many of the there's a myriad of other types of made in Hawaii products that that could kinda wet the appetite of the Japanese tourists. And, you know, again, we see Japanese still coming back in spite of the yen being the dollar being $1.59 today.

My goodness.

But actually, yeah, you bring up an excellent point, and there's always opportunity. So it's not a is is there an opportunity? There is an opportunity. Right? It's just a matter of, you know, is there that that push? Right? Are they willing to to kinda roll the dice and see, you know, that there is a supply definitely being created here? And can they, in turn, create the demand, you know, to to shift over that trade imbalance that Dennis talks about?

Thank you very much. Okay.

Any further questions from the committee? Okay. Let's move to HCR 21, HR 21. Would anyone like to testify on this measure? On Zoom? Okay. I don't believe there's any testimony submitted on this. Okay. If there's no testimony, then any questions from our committee discussion? Okay.

HCR 175, HR 165. I don't believe there's any testimony on this measure either. Would anyone like to testify? Come on, guys. This is a really good one. Really is. Okay. We'll move on then to the next measure. Any questions? Discussion?

Okay. HCR 121, HR 113. Any testifiers on this measure? Any discussion? Okay.

All done. We are now gonna recess.

Okay. We are back in session. Alright. For HCR 191, HR 181, my recommendation is to pass the measure out as is. Any discussion? Okay. For the vote please, Chair.

Alright. Chair recommends to pass HCR 191 and HCR 181 as is. Chair and Vice Chair votes aye. [Roll Call] Chair, your reso has been adopted.

Thank you. Okay. For the next measure, HR 27. Recommendations to pass as is. Chair, when you're ready.

I am ready. Chair's recommendation is to pass HR 27 as is. Chair and Vice Chair votes aye. Any Members voting no? Reservations? If not, all Members voting aye, with the excuse of Representative Tam for the remainder of the hearing. Chair, your reso has been adopted.

Thank you. Okay. The next measure is HCR 24, HR 23. And for this measure, our recommendation is to pass as is. I'm sorry. Chair, for the vote, please.

Thank you. Chair's recommendation for HCR 24 and HR 23 is to pass as is. Any Members wishing to vote no? Any Members voting with reservation? If not, all other Members are voting in favor. Chair, your resolution has been adopted.

Thank you very much. Okay. For HCR 66, HR 60, recommendation is to pass as is. So Vice Chair, please. I'm sorry, Chair.

Chair's recommendation for HCR 66 and HR 60 is to pass as is. Any Members voting no? Any Members voting with reservation? If not, Members are voting in positive. Chair, your resolution has been adopted.

Okay. Thank you. Okay. For HCR 189 and HR 179, my recommendation is to pass as is. Just wanted to note for the committee report, please memorialize the comments from the from Chair Ilagan regarding an analysis of the federal and state statutes. Okay. So as is, please. Thank you.

Chair recommends to pass HCR 189 and HR 179 as is. Any Members voting no? Any Members voting with reservation? With all other Members now voting aye. Chair, your recommendation, your resolutions has been adopted.

Thank you. Okay. So HCR 153, HR 145. For this measure, recommendation is to pass as is. Any discussion? Chair.

Chair's recommendation is to pass HCR 153 and HR 145 as is. Any Members voting no? Any Members voting with reservation? With no, with all... Reservations. Perfect. So with all other Members voting aye. Chair, your resolutions has been adopted.

Thank you very much. Okay. Next measure is HCR 183, HR 173. For the committee report, I'd like to make sure that we note the concerns around jurisdiction expressed by the Department of Education. And with and to pass as is. Chair.

Chair's recommendation is to pass HCR 183 and HR 173 as is. Any Members wishing to vote no? Any reservation? With all Members voting aye, Chair, your resolution has been adopted.

Thank you. Okay. Next measure is HCR 36. For this measure, my recommendation is to pass as is. Any discussion? Thank you very much, Chair.

Chair's recommendation is to pass HCR 36 as is. Any Members voting no? Any Members voting with reservations? With all Members voting aye, Chair, your resolution has been adopted.

Thank you. Next measure is HCR 197, HR 187. For this measure, my recommendation is to pass as is. Chair.

Chair's recommendation is to pass HCR 197 and HR 187 as is. Any Members voting no? Any Members voting with reservations? With all Members voting aye. Chair, your resolution has been adopted.

Thank you. Okay. Next measure, HCR 21, HR 21. For this measure, my recommendation is to pass as is. Chair. Oh, I'm sorry. Any questions or discussion? Thank you. Chair.

Chair's recommendation is to pass HCR 21 and HR 21 as is. Any Members voting no? Any Members voting with reservations? With all other Members voting aye, Chair, your resolution has been adopted.

Thank you. Okay. For HCR 175, HR 165, there's minor typographical changes. So I think for this one, we will need an HD 1. But beyond that, no other changes. Any discussion? Okay. Chair, please. Great. So HD 1 for this.

With HCR 175 and HR 165, Chair's recommendation is to pass with amendments. Any Members voting no? Any Members voting with reservations? With all other Members voting aye, Chair, your resolution has been adopted.

Okay. Last one. HCR 121, 113. Recommendation to pass as is. Any discussion? Okay. Chair. Thank you.

Chair's recommendation is to pass HCR 121 and HR 113 as is. Any Members voting no? Any Members voting with reservations? With All Members voting aye. Chair, your resolution has been adopted.

Thank you very much.