South Korean screen makers plan to invest more than 65 trillion won ($48.77 billion) by 2027 to secure innovative technologies and regain the number one position in the world.
The planned investments aim to increase the country’s global market share to more than 50 percent by 2027, from 37 percent last year, through the development of new next-generation display technologies and the expansion of OLED production lines.
The country will also manufacture 80 percent of the materials, parts and equipment needed for the display industry with local technologies, compared to 65 percent in 2022, and achieve high-gap technologies to surpass competing countries by more than five years.
The announcement of these goals came during a meeting between Industry Minister Lee Chang-yang and senior officials of screen manufacturers, including Kim Sung-chul, chief technology officer of Samsung, and Yoon Soo-young, chief technology officer. at LG, Kim Young-jae, vice president of Samsung Electronics, and Park Won-hwan, president of Hansol Chemical, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy yesterday.
Korea ranked first in the world in the monitor sector in 2004, overtaking Japan, and maintained the position until 2020, but China overtook it in 2021 amid intense competition, and China’s market share reached 42.5 percent last year.
To help the companies achieve the goals, the government pledged to enact policies to fund display companies to the tune of 900 billion won for their new investment and equipment manufacturing, and to study the creation of special zones for the sector to expand infrastructure and other support.
The government plans to allocate more than 1 trillion won for research and development projects to develop technologies for mass-producing next-generation screens. The government will also work to ease regulations and designate key screen-related technologies as the country’s strategic advanced technologies, so that companies can benefit from additional tax cuts.
The ministry said that over the next ten years, the state plans to sponsor 9,000 experts in this sector by opening new majors in graduate schools and strengthening cooperation with universities and colleges.
The country earlier decided to grant a tax credit rate of 15 percent on enterprise investment in strategic industries, including chips and displays, up from above the previous rate of 8 percent.
Lee Dong-wook, vice president of the Monitor Industry Association, said, “The monitor industry is an essential industry in the country. If the government and private companies join forces to bring innovation, we will once again be able to become the best in the world.”
