Choo Mi-ae, the Democratic Party candidate for governor of Gyeonggi Province, said April 24 she would work as a “one team” with the government and the ruling party to strengthen the global competitiveness of the region’s semiconductor cluster.
Choo visited Samsung Electronics’ Pyeongtaek campus, a Korea Land & Housing Corp. (LH) site for a national industrial complex in Yongin, and SK hynix’s Yongin industrial complex. Calling the Gyeonggi semiconductor cluster “a core task that will determine the future of the South Korean economy,” she said she would “complete the world’s best semiconductor cluster” with speed and drive.
She added that if she wins the June local elections, “the president, governor, mayors and lawmakers will be a solid one team,” and said she would “take responsibility to the end and prove it with results.”
Accompanying her were Democratic Party lawmakers Hong Ki-won and Kim Hyun-jung from Pyeongtaek, and Lee Sang-sik, Son Myung-soo, Boo Seung-chan and Lee Eon-ju from Yongin, along with Pyeongtaek mayoral candidate Choi Won-yong and Yongin mayoral candidate Hyun Geun-taek, among other party candidates.
At Samsung’s Pyeongtaek campus, Choo described the so-called “Su-Yong-Seong-Pyeong-O-I” semiconductor belt — linking Suwon, Yongin, Hwaseong, Seongnam, Anseong, Pyeongtaek, Osan and Icheon — as a key pillar of the nation’s industry, and said she would further strengthen it into a world-leading semiconductor cluster.
She cited the Dutch chip-equipment maker ASML, which has manufacturing facilities in Dongtan, Hwaseong, and U.S. chip company Applied Materials, which plans to build a research and development center in Osan, underscoring her push to advance semiconductor technology centered on Pyeongtaek.
At the SK hynix site in Yongin, Choo said South Korea needs a “mega-scale semiconductor ecosystem” combining private investment and public infrastructure, and said the Gyeonggi semiconductor cluster should be completed as a single, ultra-wide industrial belt.
* This article has been translated by AI.
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