Korean government invests 784 million USD in high-tech cluster

Written 20.03.2005 16:02 by Esther Russell Print Send article

The Korean government intends to lure 790 billion won (784 million US dollars) in investments before 2010 to build an industrial cluster for radio-frequency identification (RFID) technology in Songdo, near the western coast city of Incheon.

According to the plan the government will complete the building of research and development facilities, engineering centers and manufacturing lines for electronic tags and readers in Songdo by 2007. The manufacturing line will be able to produce active RFID tags and sensors by 2008. The government will finance about 320 billion won towards the budget.

"We have secured around 120,000 pyong (one pyong equals 3.3 square meters) of land within the New Songdo City to base the RFID cluster. The objective is to reduce the investments risks for domestic electronics and communications companies in deploying RFID while luring more foreign technology investments," said Hyung Tae-gun, director of the Communication Ministry's information and communication policy bureau.

The ministry will release a finalized plan later this month to detail the locations of the facilities and announce guidelines in supporting private sector investment.

The Songdo RFID cluster is the central part of the government's initiatives to build seven industrial hubs nationwide by 2010 to develop the country as a Northeast Asian leader in high-tech manufacturing and trade.

Apart from the RFID cluster in Songdo, the government is planning to complete a research and development base for software and digital contents by 2007 in Sangam-dong, Seoul, under a 430 billion won project. Jeju Island is currently being promoted as a test bed for automobile-based network computing solutions, while the Gangwon Province is planned to be developed as the heart for the country's biotechnology industry.

Other plans include building an industrial cluster for embedded software technology in North Gyeongsang Province and a cluster for computing network-based logistic solutions in Busan.

"The idea is to increase the role of information and communication technology to the existing industries that have grown separately in each region. This would help achieve further economic growth and balanced regional development as it would make companies here and abroad spread the technology investments that has been heavily concentrated in metropolitan areas," said Seok Ho-ik, director of the Communication Ministry's planning and management office.

Source: http://www.business-in-asia.com/korea.htm