Lee Jae Myung to personally oversee Honam semiconductor mega-project

"Ground-breaking within this term, semiconductor production within this term."

President Lee Jae Myung will personally chair the second public-private joint review meeting on three major mega-projects at Cheong Wa Dae at 2 p.m. Monday, as the government pushes to accelerate development of a semiconductor cluster in the Honam region.

Attention is focused on whether concrete figures will emerge for key prerequisites — power supply, industrial water and residential infrastructure — deemed essential to the semiconductor industry. A particularly pressing local issue is how the government will resolve the standoff with Muan-gun, a candidate site for the relocation of Gwangju's military airport, after the county moved to reopen negotiations.

The second meeting brings together all related ministries, including the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, the Ministry of National Defense, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, and the Ministry of Climate, Environment and Energy. It comes roughly a month after the first meeting on July 6.

Representatives from participating companies, including Samsung Electronics and SK hynix, are also expected to attend alongside the ministries.

The meeting is expected to focus on plans for developing the site of a national semiconductor industrial complex — contingent on the relocation of the Gwangju military airport — as well as the schedule for securing power and water supply.

With the site confirmed at the first meeting, the second session is expected to address land compensation procedures and ways to compress the development timeline in concrete terms.

The government is exploring ways to run related procedures simultaneously or in parallel through inter-ministry consultations to shorten the administrative process.

Infrastructure needed to support semiconductor production facilities is also a key agenda item. The Honam semiconductor cluster is estimated to require about 650,000 metric tons of industrial water per day and an additional 6.3 gigawatts of power.

Existing legislation — including the special law on the integrated South Jeolla Province-Gwangju metropolitan city, the National Advanced Strategic Industries Act and the Industrial Sites Act — could be used to streamline permitting, national industrial complex designation and infrastructure installation. Focus is now on how the government will structure and operate a pan-government special support committee to oversee the entire process.