Gyeonggi Governor Sohn Hak-kyu attended the opening ceremony for the R&D Design Center of National Semiconductor of the U.S. in KINS Tower, Bundang on February 10. 

At the ceremony, the Gyeonggi Governor said he would do his best to provide all possible administrative services to help foreign-based hi-tech businesses in the province carry out their operations successfully R&D, in addition to making efforts to contribute to the upgrading of the nation’s technological prowess, particularly in the information technology sector, on the occasion of opening the R&D Design Center. 

National Semiconductor was established in 1959 and has grown as a leading business in the analog semiconductor sector, such as display and wireless handsets, posting about $1.9 billion in sales and hiring 8,500 employees (in 2005). As a result of the provincial government’s positive persuasion, it signed an MOU for investment in the province in April 2004. 

The U.S. business plans to build a production facility in Gyeonggi Province and expand to China, Southeast Asia and Finland, using its forward base in Korea. Its decision to invest in Korea is known as the first case of attracting a global R&D center of a SoC (System-on-a-Chip) business in Korea. 

A Gyeonggi Provincial official said that National Semiconductor’s establishment of its design center in the province was in connection with its aim to secure an advantageous position in Korea based on the fact that about half of its sales are made in the Asia-Pacific region and Asian countries, including Korea, dominate the world’s semiconductor market. 

It is expected that the U.S. business will provide solution-related support, such as the supply of small-sized form factor products consuming less power and having a variety of functions or solution to application problems, to Korean household appliance manufacturers doing well in world markets. 

The semiconductor design sector, the target of investment of National Semiconductor, is sensitive to changes in market situations like product demand. Thus, the U.S. business has found it necessary to establish a design center in Korea, an important consumer country, in an effort to cope with the rapid changes in the market through timely product design and save production cost. 

With the opening of its R&D design center in Gyeonggi Province, National Semiconductor can now play the role of an anchor business for the semiconductor design sector in Korea. Domestic businesses, on their part, are expected to enhance their semiconductor design capability through transfer of high-end technology, save expense for technological development through mutual assistance in technological development, enjoy considerable import substitution effect and create jobs. It is also expected that there will be the effect of integration of hi-tech businesses in Gyeonggi Province. 

The R&D Design Center will focus on the designing of analog circuits in various electronic products, such as computers, panel display, wireless phones, PDA, and other Internet-related products.