Government Promotes Investment Attraction for Thermo Fisher Production Facility in the U.S.

Jung In-kyo, Director General of the Trade Negotiations Headquarters, met with Mark Smedley, Vice President of Thermo Fisher Scientific, on the 28th to discuss attracting investment in bio raw material production facilities in Korea, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy announced.

This meeting followed Jung’s discussion with Dan Shine, Vice President in charge of analytical equipment at Thermo Fisher, during his visit to the U.S. on the 13th, where they discussed cooperation in the bio sector. Taking advantage of Vice President Smedley’s visit to Korea, who oversees investments in the Asia-Pacific region, they exchanged more in-depth opinions on investment in Korea.

Thermo Fisher is a U.S.-based global life sciences company with sales exceeding 47 trillion KRW, employing 120,000 people across more than 60 countries, and supplies bio raw materials to domestic companies such as Samsung Biologics and Celltrion.

Director General Jung stated, "Our country aims to become a global hub for biopharmaceutical manufacturing, with major domestic companies like Samsung, Lotte, and Celltrion aggressively expanding their production capacity through investments," emphasizing, "There is a reason why world-leading bio raw material companies such as Merck, Sartorius, and Cytiva have chosen Korea as their final investment destination."

He added, "Korea is an open trade country that has signed free trade agreements (FTAs) with 59 countries covering 21 agreements, providing easy access to markets accounting for 85% of the global GDP," and requested, "Please invest in Korea, which possesses the world’s 4th largest manufacturing competitiveness and excellent human resources, and actively utilize it as a production base and export hub for the Asia-Pacific region." Director General Jung explained that incentives available to Thermo Fisher if it invests in Korea include cash support, land lease fee reductions, exclusive R&D support for foreign-invested companies, and assistance in talent discovery and matching, conveying the government’s strong commitment to support.

Thermo Fisher expressed hope to expand cooperation with Korean companies not only in the bio sector but also in battery and semiconductor fields, and announced plans to collaborate with domestic battery companies to develop solutions to analytical challenges related to improving battery quality.

The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy plans to target global companies that can contribute to securing stable supply chains and expanding exports of Korean companies, focusing on advanced strategic industries such as bio and batteries, aiming to attract $35 billion in foreign investment this year.

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