Chungnam, Fostering Vehicle Semiconductors and Biohealth Industries

[Asia Economy (Hongseong) Reporter Jeong Il-woong] Chungnam Province is set to foster and support new industry sectors such as automotive semiconductors and biohealth.

The province announced on the 25th that two projects in new industry sectors were finally selected in the recent Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy’s 2022 Industrial Innovation Infrastructure Establishment Project competition.

The selected projects are “Establishment of an Innovation Infrastructure for Functional Safety and Reliability of Automotive Semiconductors” and “Establishment of a Next-Generation Microbiome Pharmaceutical and Diagnostic Technology Development Infrastructure for National Disaster Super Bacteria and Emerging Virus Response.”

According to the selection results, the province will receive 20 billion KRW in national funding from this year through 2026 to carry out these projects.

First, the project for establishing an innovation infrastructure for functional safety and reliability in automotive semiconductors will be led by the Korea Automotive Technology Institute with participation from Chungnam Technopark and the Korea Advanced Automotive Technology Association, aiming to create a system semiconductor ecosystem.

Over five years, a total of 16.9 billion KRW will be invested, including 10 billion KRW in national funds, 2.2 billion KRW from the provincial government, 2.2 billion KRW from Asan City, and 2.5 billion KRW in private investment. The core goals are to build equipment for automotive semiconductor functional safety (design, verification, evaluation) and reliability (evaluation, failure) analysis, as well as to train experts and provide technical support to companies.

The project for establishing a next-generation microbiome pharmaceutical and diagnostic technology development infrastructure to respond to national disaster super bacteria and emerging viruses will be led by Soonchunhyang University, with participation from the Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology and Yonsei University Severance Hospital.

This project is expected to receive a total investment of 25.9 billion KRW over the next five years, including 10 billion KRW in national funds, 5.9 billion KRW from the provincial government, 9.8 billion KRW from Asan City, and 200 million KRW in private investment, aiming to create a biohealth ecosystem.

The province plans to support technology development through establishing a microbiome pharmaceutical scale-up process development infrastructure, installing animal efficacy testing facilities, and developing commercialization technologies for high-risk infectious diseases and microbiome pharmaceuticals.

The province anticipates economic effects from these projects, including the creation of 261 jobs, 57.3 billion KRW in added value, and 60.7 billion KRW in production inducement.

Yu Jae-ryong, Director of the Future Industry Bureau of Chungnam Province, said, “With the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy’s project selection results, Chungnam has laid the foundation to preoccupy and foster key future new industries such as automotive system semiconductors and biohealth industries. The province will continue to strive to help the domestic automotive and bio industries take a leap forward based on the excellent local industrial ecosystem.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.