– Provincial Governor Sohn Hak-kyu Signs the MOA in the UK on January 17 –

The High-end Foreign Company Investment Committee (Chairman: Gyeonggi provincial governor Sohn Hak-kyu) completed their activities in Germany and Belgium after leaving Korea on January 12. The Committee proceeded to the UK where they finalized a contract for a large sum of investment worth $170 million with BOC.

BOC Group is the world’s second largest industrial gas manufacturer with a 120-year history. Rajagopal the CEO of BOC Edwards, a division of the group, signed the MOA with Gyeonggi provincial governor Sohn Hak-kyu at the BOC headquarters on January 17. The MOA specifies that BOC will build high-purity gas manufacturing facilities for Samsung Electronic’s semiconductor production in an area of 24,000m2 within the province.

The province has been in contact with BOC for a year. An MOU for building the high-purity gas manufacturing system in Paju was signed in July 2004. An official from BOC explained the company’s continuous large-scale investment on Gyeonggi-do that “the biggest reason is that the province houses a number of large demand holders, yet the aggressive administrative support and effort by the provincial government also took a large part leading to our decision.”

The MOA leaves Korea with the world’s best technology and the field practice know-how in the industrial gas sector. It will also benefit the nation’s competitiveness in the global market by securing a stable source of industrial gas for production of high-quality semiconductor and TFT-LCD goods.

A provincial official stated, “BOC is planning on carrying out a large recruitment when the business is launched, and it will considerably better Korean society suffering from the unemployment problem. The province will continue its effort in generating high-quality employment opportunities by attracting more high-end foreign companies.”