Rep. Lee Eon-ju: "Government's 'Speed Drive' for Yongin Semiconductor Can Enable Early Investment of 2.5 Trillion Won"
Rep. Lee Eon-ju of the Democratic Party of Korea (Yongin, Gyeonggi Province) has expressed support for the government's "speed drive" in addressing on-site difficulties following the government's recent announcement of measures to strengthen semiconductor industry competitiveness.
Rep. Lee, who serves as chair of the Future Economic Growth Strategy Committee and vice-chair of the AI Powerhouse Committee, noted through SNS on the 14th the significance of the government swiftly reflecting issues raised by businesses at the Yongin semiconductor industrial complex into policy.
On the 11th, the Democratic Party's Three Mega Projects Support Special Committee, of which Rep. Lee serves as vice-chair, directly visited the Yongin semiconductor industrial complex to conduct an on-site inspection and heard concerns from resident companies. During this process, key issues including permission procedures blocking factory expansion and related regulations were raised.
Subsequently, through an economic ministers' meeting, building regulations related to factory expansion at the Yongin semiconductor general industrial complex were improved, opening a path to early implementation of corporate investment estimated at approximately 2.5 trillion won. Notably, difficulties identified during the on-site visit led to government policy improvements within just days.
Regarding this, Rep. Lee stated, "I find it particularly meaningful that the difficulties raised by businesses, which we directly confirmed during our special committee's visit to the Yongin semiconductor industrial complex last Tuesday, were suddenly reflected in the economic ministers' meeting," adding "with the resolution of building law regulations that blocked factory expansion, a path has opened to early implementation of approximately 2.5 trillion won in investment."
In particular, experts point out that the competitiveness of the Yongin semiconductor cluster depends not only on regulatory improvement but also on timely provision of essential infrastructure including electricity, water supply, and transportation. Recently, the government, local governments, Korea Electric Power Corporation, and companies signed an agreement to ensure timely electricity supply to the Yongin and Honam semiconductor industrial complexes, with plans to gradually construct substations and transmission lines including Dong-Yongin and Sinwon-sam substations in the Yongin general industrial complex.
The Yongin semiconductor cluster is a core hub of national cutting-edge industries with concentrated large-scale investments from Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix. With the government significantly accelerating fab construction schedules by seven and twelve years respectively, the actual execution speed of corporate investment is expected to accelerate further if on-site regulations and infrastructure issues are swiftly resolved.
Rep. Lee stated, "Going forward, I will continue to convey the voices from the field to the government and actively provide necessary support so that the Yongin semiconductor cluster can establish itself as a global semiconductor production hub according to plan, or even faster than planned."