The government unveiled a plan on Wednesday to develop the Pangyo area in Gyeonggi Province into a “Korean Silicon Valley.”

The Ministry of Knowledge Economy said the Pangyo Semicon Cluster will be the nation’s base for the information technology and semiconductor industry.

Government officials, businessmen and scholars, about 300 in total, gathered in Pangyo to celebrate the “Pangyo Semicon Cluster Vision Declaration Ceremony” that was hosted by the Knowledge Economy Ministry.

Pangyo is a planned district surrounding part of Bundang-gu and Sujeong-gu of Seongnam City in Gyeonggi Province, southern Seoul.

The semiconductor cluster takes after the Silicon Valley in the United States of America and the Hsinchu Science Park in Taiwan, which the ministry calls “proved specimens.”

“The (Pangyo) cluster will be a epoch-making alternative that covers what is considered as the weakness of the Korean semiconductor industry―repeated loopholes in shared-development environment,” Knowledge Economy Minister Hong Seok-woo said during the ceremony.

The Ministry confirmed the reinforcement plan to foster the triangular area connecting Pangyo, Giheung and Icheon, within which 60-some fabless corporations and 50-some related equipment enterprises are currently located.

Semiconductor giants have also settled into the Pangyo Cluster. SK Hynix is nested in Icheon and Samsung Electronics’ semiconductor sector is stationed in Giheung and Hwaseong.

Two state-run research institutes ― the Korea Electronics Technology Institute SoC Platform Research Center and the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute ― finished moving to the cluster back in June.

The cluster is a big aggregate of government, corporate and research facilities, gathered for one shared goal: to top the global field of semiconductor technology.

Universities with nationwide reputation such as Sungkyunkwan University, Seoul National University, Dankook University and Kyung Hee University are also located in the cluster, vigorously concentrating on related technological research and development.

The Pangyo Cluster plan is an extension of the government’s “foster project for the system semiconductor and equipment industries,” which was formally launched in 2010.

By Chung Joo-won (joowonc@heraldcorp.com)