"Chinese chip makers are chasing us very closely," Kim Ki-nam, head of the Korea Semiconductor Industry Council, said Tuesday. "And the fate of the domestic semiconductor industry will depend on how we do in the next five years."
Kim's remarks were not new to industry experts, but the venue and participants of the industrial forum were a little unusual. Among about 200 people who attended the forum at the National Assembly Members' Office Building were not only business and government officials but many lawmakers.
"The government needs to provide policy support for chip makers' research and development efforts, the parliament should help build infrastructure, academia is urged to establish systematic cultivation of talents, and businesses ought to innovate management," said Kim, who also heads Samsung Electronics' semiconductor division. "And the industry must combine all these elements into an organic and sustainable industrial ecosystem."
More specifically, Kim called for promotion of semiconductor systems as well as developing technology and creating markets for semiconductor products related to future-oriented industries such as the auto, robot and bio sectors.
China's semiconductor makers, armed with money and extensive government support, are threatening Korean chip makers and posing a big stumbling block for growth in the domestic industry, Kim said. Industry experts said there are even fears that Taiwanese chip makers, who failed to catch up with their Korean competitors in the early 2000s, are joining with the Chinese by inducing the latter's investment.
Rep. Noh Young-min of the opposition New Policy Alliance for Democracy, who held the forum, expressed regret that the Assembly has slashed the budget for electronic and information device projects, the only government program to help the semiconductor industry's R&D efforts. "We and our colleague parliamentarians interested in developing the new growth industries will spare no efforts to restore government spending on this area," Noh said.