Display industry to invest 28.5 tln won to upgrade competitiveness

SEOUL, Nov. 2 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's display industry said Monday that it will
invest 28.5 trillion won (US$28.5 billion) over the next four years to maintain
its lead in the global market.

In a meeting of the Korea Display Industry Association (KDIA), member companies
signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) outlining joint efforts to locally
develop precision manufacturing machinery needed to make active-matrix organic
light-emitting diodes (AM OLEDs).
At present, South Korean companies have to import most machinery needed to make
AM OLEDs from Japan, which has affected overall competitiveness and raised costs.
The agreement, that calls for at least 8.2 trillion won to be used next year,
also calls for efforts to help small-size machinery manufacturers that will be
tasked with development of such specialized products.
Companies like LG Display, Samsung Electronics Co., and Samsung Mobile Display
Co. added that they will establish so-called eighth generation liquid crystal
display (LCD) production lines and set aside money to lay the foundation to build
11th-generation display lines.
Such investments will be needed to permit the country to hold onto its global No.
1 ranking in LCDs and take the lead in AM OLEDs and organic light-emitting diodes
that have considerable growth potential.
The MOU arranged by KDIA and the Ministry of Knowledge Economy also calls for
concerted effort to make super-definition LCDs, displays with three-dimensional
images and very large screen LCDs in the coming years.
yonngong@yna.co.kr
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