Yoon Suk Yeol, the president of South Korea, has launched a KRW26 trillion ($19.1 billion) support package that includes financial, infrastructure, R&D, and support for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
The biggest memory chip companies in the world, Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix are based in South Korea, which pledged last year to use $456 billion in private investment to construct the largest chip centre in the world to gain a competitive advantage in the global market.
According to AFP, Finance Minister Choi Sang-mok said in mid-May that the initiative will provide KRW10 trillion in funding to support domestic producers of chips and related components and materials.
According to Yoon, to boost employment, the government also intends to prolong the tax breaks for semiconductor investments.
Newsng gathered that among the package is a $7 billion investment that was declared earlier this month.
To increase employment and draw in more talent for the sector, Yoon added that Seoul would prolong the tax breaks for chip investments.
The country is also constructing a “mega chip cluster” outside of Seoul, which according to the government will be the largest semiconductor manufacturing facility in the world and provide millions of employment.
“We have created a comprehensive support programme for the semiconductor industry worth 26 trillion Korean won [$19.1bn], which encompasses financial, infrastructure, research and development, as well as support for small and medium-sized companies,” he said, according to a statement from his office.
According to Yoon’s office, South Korea’s market share of the fabless industry, which includes businesses like the massive American corporation Nvidia, was only around 1%. We earlier reported that the Biden administration is seeking proposals from businesses with the capacity to create and run an organisation that will create semiconductor “digital twins,” with the possibility of receiving funding of up to $285 million.
