– Foreign Investment Attraction Agency Signs MOUs with Foreign Firms worth USD 265 million

On June 18, the agency for the development of foreign investment in Gyeonggi Province (Director: Kim Moon-soo, Governor of Gyeonggi Province) announced that it had concluded memoranda of understanding with a semiconductor core material manufacturer, the semiconductor equipment manufacturer Mattson, the stem cell company Stemedica, and the solar cell firm Telio Solar regarding investment by these firms in Gyeonggi Province.

The MOUs represent new investments in Gyeonggi Province amounting to USD 265 million, bringing new foreign investment in Gyeonggi Province to more than USD 10 billion in the two years since the beginning of Governor Kim’s four-year term. In addition, 330 new jobs are to be created at the four companies, as well as 79,000 new positions at other companies.

Gyeonggi Province engaged in a series of negotiations with the semiconductor core material manufacturer since 2006, and has thus been able to attract a massive project that includes a USD 200 million investment and over 100 highly skilled workers.

This semiconductor core material manufacturer has been praised by Samsung for its quality and competitiveness; in fact, it was Samsung that requested it to invest in Korea. Its investment is therefore expected to contribute to boosting the competitiveness of domestic firms.

Mattson decided first to invest USD 1 billion in an industrial complex within Pyeongtaek, and plans to invest additional funds according to business performance.

Stemedica manufactures drugs for the nervous system, eye disease, skin restoration, and brain-related diseases using stem cells. The firm, which is currently operating in the Techno Valley of Ansan City, plans to invest an additional USD 500 million to foster Gyeonggi Province as a regional R&D and production hub of Asia. It is developing new stem cell-related drugs, which pose no ethical problems as they are based on research that utilizes adult stem cells rather than embryonic stem cells. Indeed, this research method is notable in that it causes no harm to the patient, and places no ethical burden on the researcher.

In the area of adult stem cell research, the heart disease drug development firm Bio Heart already invested USD 20 million, finished construction of a plant in September 2007, and is now operating within the foreign investment complex of Eoyeon and Hansan in Gyeonggi Province. Indeed, Gyeonggi Province is emerging as a new hub for stem cell drugs.

Telio Solar is based in California, and conducts solar cell research in Silicon Valley. It plans to invest USD 50 million to build a pilot plant and manufacturing facility for a 30MW compound CIGS solar cell in Gyeonggi Province. The requirements for the production of such a compound thin-film cell are similar to those of the display industry in terms of technology and infrastructure; thanks to this synergy with the Korean technological capability and human resources in the display industry, which is Gyeonggi’s core traditional manufacturing industry, it is expected that the plant will be nurtured into a next-generation industry center.

On the same day as the province’s announcement, Governor Kim Moon-soo hosted an investment fair for some 10 IT and BT firms in San Francisco. He said that the East Asian region, which boasts a population of 1.6 billion and represents 18% of the world’s GDP, will become an important market for global IT and BT, adding that Gyeonggi Province is equipped with world-class IT infrastructure due to the fact that Samsung Electronics, LG Display, and Hynix Semiconductor are all operating within the region.

Gyeonggi Province plans to continually create and supply industrial complexes specifically for foreign investment while building a global R&D center in the Pangyo Techno Valley. The province also plans to actively provide financial support, through employment and manpower training subsidies.