The prospects for Gyeonggi Province's semiconductor ecosystem initiative under the ninth elected provincial administration have brightened after several of the province's proposals were incorporated into the enforcement decree of the Special Act on Strengthening the Competitiveness of and Support for the Semiconductor Industry, which took effect Aug. 11.
According to Gyeonggi Province, six items the province proposed during the public notice period for the enforcement decree — which ran from June 25 — were either fully or partially reflected in the final text.
Among the fully accepted proposals, a requirement that applications for semiconductor cluster development plans be limited to areas "outside the metropolitan area" was confirmed deleted. The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy had included that restriction in a draft decree it circulated to related ministries and local governments for comment in May.
On the partially accepted side, a provision requiring that non-metropolitan areas "shall be given preferential treatment" in the designation of semiconductor clusters and in support eligibility for companies and institutions moving into those clusters was softened to language requiring that such areas be "considered on a priority basis."
A similar change was made to a provision on support for highly skilled foreign workers: wording that allowed preferential measures for foreign talent "employed at or conducting research in a semiconductor cluster or workplace located outside the metropolitan area" was revised to allow such measures to be "implemented on a priority basis."
In provisions related to the designation of specialized semiconductor workforce training institutions, language requiring that efforts be made to "prioritize institutions located outside the metropolitan area" was revised to simply require that efforts be made to ensure such institutions "can be designated."
A provision on support for the establishment and operation of contract departments — industry-linked university programs — was also eased. The original text allowed preferential treatment for contract departments at industrial education institutions outside the metropolitan area. The revised version requires that workforce demand and supply contributions to the semiconductor industry, cooperation frameworks with semiconductor businesses, and other factors be considered comprehensively, while still allowing priority support for contract departments at institutions outside the metropolitan area.
Gyeonggi Province said the revised decree minimizes the risk of chipmakers and institutions within the province being disadvantaged in accessing institutional support. Beyond the cluster application eligibility requirement, several provisions favoring non-metropolitan areas — covering cluster designation and support, skilled foreign worker assistance, workforce training institution designation, and contract department operations — were also eased during the drafting process.
The province plans to accelerate follow-up steps, including pursuing formal semiconductor cluster designation, to translate the eligibility it secured through the decree into tangible gains in industrial competitiveness.
Designation as a semiconductor cluster would unlock a range of benefits and special provisions, including support for building and operating industrial infrastructure, administrative and fiscal assistance for companies and institutions in the cluster, expedited permit processing, priority selection for and exemption from preliminary feasibility studies, and workforce development and technology support.
The province plans to launch a policy research project with the Gyeonggi Research Institute to prepare a basic blueprint and development plan for a cluster encompassing the province's major semiconductor industry hubs, as part of its formal application for semiconductor cluster designation.
During the research process, the province said it will gather input from cities and counties, businesses, and research institutions, and will flesh out details on the current state of the semiconductor industry, infrastructure, industrial clustering plans, workforce development and research capacity building, and funding strategies.
To push for revisions to the initial draft of the enforcement decree, the province worked closely with the offices of Gyeonggi-based lawmakers — including Kim Seung-won, Kim Tae-nyeon, Lee Eon-ju, Lee Sang-sik, Son Myeong-su and Bu Seung-chan — to convey the province's position to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy.
The province and 19 of its cities and counties also jointly submitted a formal request for improvements to the central government, and made multiple visits to the ministry to explain the problems that could arise from excluding the metropolitan area from eligibility and to press for regulatory reform.
Governor Choo moved quickly after winning election in June, forming a special committee on semiconductor supremacy strategy and coordinating a broad-based response involving the province, cities and counties, lawmakers, and her transition team to help push for the removal of the metropolitan area exclusion from the decree.
fob140@heraldcorp.com
