"Advanced Industries Must Secure Global Leadership Through Korea-US R&D Collaboration"

Hosted by the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Korea-America Association
'Korea-US Industrial Cooperation Conference' Held
Experts Emphasize 'Mother Factory Strategy'

The Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Korea-America Association, and the American Chamber of Commerce in Korea held the 'Korea-US Industrial Cooperation Conference' on the morning of the 12th at the Westin Chosun Hotel in Jung-gu, Seoul.

Attendees at the event included Choi Joong-kyung, Chairman of the Korea-America Association; Woo Tae-hee, Executive Vice President of the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry; James Kim, Chairman of the American Chamber of Commerce in Korea; Mark Manyin, Senior Research Fellow at the U.S. Congressional Research Service; Karen Sutter, Senior Research Fellow at the U.S. Congressional Research Service; and Jay Biggs, Commercial Counselor at the U.S. Embassy in Korea.

Professors Park Jae-geun of Hanyang University and Park Cheol-wan of Seojeong University delivered keynote presentations on semiconductors and secondary batteries, respectively. Panelists for each session included Dr. Cho Eun-gyo from the Korea Institute for Industrial Economics and Trade, Vice President Kim Chun-hwan of SK Hynix, and Executive Director Park Young-wan of Qualcomm Korea (all on semiconductors), as well as Dr. Hwang Kyung-in from the Korea Institute for Industrial Economics and Trade, Attorney Park Jeong-hyun from the law firm Bae, Kim & Lee, and Dr. Lee Hyung-seok from the Hyundai Research Institute (all on secondary batteries).

Choi Joong-kyung, Chairman of the Korea-America Association, stated, "As the competition for technological supremacy in advanced industries intensifies, the strategy to establish a mother factory that serves as the brain of companies becomes increasingly important. To internalize Korea’s core technologies and revitalize R&D, we must cooperate as 'one team' with the United States, a leading country in advanced industry source technologies."

Professor Park Jae-geun of Hanyang University, who presented on the global mother factory strategy for the semiconductor industry, said, "For a mother factory that performs core functions such as product design and research and development to operate successfully, close collaboration with material and equipment companies that possess key technologies is crucial. As the difficulty of ultra-fine semiconductor process technology increases daily, the level of materials and equipment required for manufacturing also rises, so government policy support is needed to attract R&D centers of overseas leading material and equipment companies into Korea."

Professor Park added, "In particular, to secure global technological leadership in memory and advanced foundry processes and to actively participate in the U.S.-led next-generation packaging technology and AI semiconductor standardization trends, it is essential to avoid falling behind in the global market. For this, active technological cooperation between Korea’s ASTC, which performs functions similar to the U.S. NSTC that leads next-generation semiconductor standards, is indispensable."

In the second session, Professor Park Cheol-wan of Seojeong University, who spoke on the secondary battery industry, said, "With the ‘era of mass consumption of secondary batteries’ opening across industries such as mobile IT and electric vehicles, the importance of secondary batteries is growing. However, intensified competition with countries like China and Japan threatens Korea’s position in the global market. To maintain a leading position in the global secondary battery market, it is important to possess high technological capabilities through technological innovation."

Professor Park continued, "In this situation of mixed crisis and opportunity, the shortcut to quickly commercializing next-generation advanced strategic technologies is the 'mother factory' strategy. From next-generation technology development to mass production, regulatory removal that could be an obstacle and tailored policy support such as subsidies to alleviate the large investment burden on the three major battery companies must be provided."

Woo Tae-hee, Executive Vice President of the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said, "Advanced industries have high and complex supply chain interdependencies, making it difficult for a single company or country to independently reorganize. Designing a supply chain map through close collaboration between the public and private sectors of both countries will be the first step in the mother factory strategy."

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