PANGYO, KOREA — “Pan-gyo Techno Valley (PTV) will be developed into Korea’s R&D landmark that fuses the knowledge-based industry with R&D functions,” says Seong-tae Jeon, Assistant Governor of Economy & Investment Office at the Gyeonggi Provincial Government. Recently, Mr. Jeon put forth his blueprint for fostering PTV, Korea’s answer to the US’s Silicon Valley, into a global incubator of global cutting-edge technologies. His plan is to turn PTV into a specialized, world-class cluster where the convergence of research, information and trade takes place to give rise to state-of-the-art technologies that will eventually lead the global industry.
The US’s Silicon Valley is home to nearly 7,000 companies including Apple, Intel and Google. 20% of the world’s major high-tech companies have a substantial presence in Silicon Valley. Hsinchu Science and Industrial Park in Taiwan houses about 450 companies such as TSMC, UMC and MediaTek (a leading fabless semiconductor company for wireless communications and digital multimedia solutions), thereby establishing a collaborative network between foundry–fabless companies. In contrast, though Korea holds the world’s best semiconductor technologies, for the most part it lacks industry-academia-R&D institution networks that can systemically buttress its top-notch semiconductor technologies.
Against this backdrop, PTV was designed to serve as a global R&D hub that doubles as a future-oriented, self-sustaining city. Accessible through the Seoul Ring Expressway intersecting at Pangyo JCT, PTV (which covers a land area of 661,925㎡ and houses a multitude of IT companies) is well positioned to become Korea’s answer to Silicon Valley that leads Korea’s industries into the future. Support for R&D tasks, infrastructure building, injections of R&D personnel and improvements to the business environment will be carried out in stages. Assistant Governor Jeon anticipates, “At least 1,000 companies are expected to move into PTV by 2015 – in particular into PTV’s cutting-edge knowledge industry cluster that encompasses system semiconductors, game, content and bio industries.
As of now, 294 Korean SMEs in high-tech sectors are doing business in PTV. Scheduled for completion in 2015, PTV has already seen its facility occupancy rate surge to 40%. By sector, PTV is home to 177 businesses engaged in semiconductors, LCD, information & communications and software development sectors. These are broken down as follows: 38 businesses in the biotechnology (BT) industry (drug development and medical equipment), 35 software developers, and nearly 100 companies in other sectors.
Major IT Companies Flocking to Pan-gyo Techno Valley in Droves
After driving for twenty minutes on the Gyungbu Highway from Seoul you reach Pan-gyo IC, greeted by an abundance of skyscrapers to the east. This is the “PTV” that Gyeonggi-do has been ambitiously constructing since 2005, pouring in over KRW 5.2 trillion. Korea’s leading IT companies have already moved in in droves and many more are planning to move in soon – for example, Ahnlab, Institut Pasteur Korea, LIG Nex1, Samsung Techwin, SK Chemicals, POSCO ICT, NEXON, NHN Corporation and NEOWIZ.
The Sin Bundang Subway Line, which whisks passengers from Gangnam to Pan-gyo in only 14 minutes, opened at the end of October last year, making PTV more accessible. Once all of the businesses have moved in by 2015, PTV will become the largest cutting-edge global R&D complex in Korea with a settled population of 80,000. Leveraging easy access to the Seoul metropolitan area (a huge consumer market with a population of 20 million), Seoul Teheran-ro, Gwanggyo Techno Valley, Bundang IT Valley and Paju LCD Complex, PTV is forecast to grow into the centerpiece of Korea’s pioneering convergence technology belts and a major innovation stronghold in Gyeonggi Province.
Assistant Governor Jeon said, “Since Pangyo is a growing bedroom suburb adjacent to Seoul, supply of excellent talents and transportation infrastructure such as Gyungbu Highway have been secured. Based on the optimum logistics, PTV is extremely likely to evolve into a hub of knowledge-based industries. On top of that, we expect to see synergy between companies operating in PTV and approximately 500 software companies in nearby cities like Seongnam, Anyang and Suwon.”
PTV’s strengths lie in its convenient transportation, a large pool of R&D talents and various infrastructures such as medical services and modern housing. In its proximity are Seoul, Incheon International Airport, the Incheon Port and Pyeongtaek Port. Its excellent transportation infrastructure also includes connections to the national basic road system, Seoul beltway, and the new Sin Bundang subway line. In terms of R&D personnel recruitment, colleges in Seoul and Gyeonggi province produce a large throng of highly educated talents every year. Once cutting-edge R&D facilities that can spur up joint research projects between companies and R&D centers are established, convergence among IT, biotechnology, nanotechnology and culture and content technology will ensue, triggering ripples across varied industries and setting up the best knowledge-based infrastructures.
The Korean government looks to nurture PTV into Korea’s IT stronghold by reinforcing linkages with the software complexes (Songpa and Teheran-ro) in the Seoul metropolitan area, foundry companies in Bucheon and Cheongju, and demander companies in Paju and Tang-jeong. This is because scaled-up cooperation among manufacturers, parts suppliers and R&D centers are required to ramp up Korean companies’ competitive edge in the semiconductor and IT sectors.
Pan-gyo Semiconductor Cluster, which accommodates 60 fabless companies and 50 equipment makers, seems to have created a favorable R&D environment as it is surrounded by Korea’s prominent engineering colleges such as Seoul National University’s Graduate School of Convergence Science and Technology in Suwon, Dankook University’s Jukjeon Campus, Yongin Campus of Kyung Hee University and Sungkyunkwan University’s Suwon Campus. About ten companies including equipment makers (e.g. Jusung Engineering, Exicon and LOT Vacuum), fabless companies like C&S Technology and Amino Logics and materials producers like Dongjin Semichem and Soul Brain have already moved in or are preparing to move in, and as a result greater synergetic effects are anticipated.
Creating The World’s Top Industry-Academia-R&D Cluster
The construction of Global R&D Center, where a total of KRW 112.8 billion has been invested over the past three years was recently completed. Standing on 12,578㎡ of land, Global R&D center has seven floors above ground and two floors below ground with a gross floor area of 46,488㎡ consisting of two research wings and one laboratory wing. It also features work-related support facilities and convenient facilities like animal testing labs, specialized labs, fitness centers and nurseries. The provision of support for R&D tasks, infrastructure building, supply of R&D personnel and improvements to the business environment will be conducted in stages from the latter half of this year in a bid to create synergy from seamless industry-academia cooperation facilitated by Global R&D Center.
Global R&D Center was established to expedite technological innovations at companies located in PTV by attracting companies packed with world-class R&D capabilities and global R&D institutions. Global R&D Center will be tenanted by multinational company GE and its affiliates (e.g. GE Energy Korea, GE Water & Process Technologies, Dresser Korea, GE International Inc. and Granite Services International), Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI), Korea Electronics Technology Institute (KETI) and Sartorius (a German biotechnology company). On top of this, domestic companies such as ISU ABXIS Co. (a Korea-based company engaged in pharmaceutical business) are about to move in. In the future, with exchanges and collaboration among global R&D companies, Korea’s leading R&D institutions and relevant companies are expected to kick into high gear.
Aside from Global R&D Center, Gyeonggi province is constructing two more centers: the Public Support Center and Industry-Academy R&D Center. The construction of the Public Support Center, which will have 10 floors above ground and six floors below ground with a gross floor area of 22,652㎡, is slated for completion in March, 2013. Public Support Center will effectively provide companies with support and encourage the generation of networks among companies in PTV. Industry-Academy R&D Center is designed to ensure colleges’ research activities and educational functions (one of PTV’s weaknesses) and galvanize industry-academia joint research projects. The plans for Industry-Academy R&D Center are currently being drawn: it is anticipated to have eight floors above ground and two floors below ground with a total floor area of 49,209㎡.
Meanwhile, Gyeonggi Province has formed a support group for PTV in order to generate the world’s best IT, BT, convergence technology innovation cluster and promote software industry clusters. The 18-strong support group, comprised of three teams (management & planning team, support team for cutting-edge companies and support team for industry-academia collaboration), takes charge of lending support to resident companies, revitalizing the complex and managing support facilities. Assistant Governor Jeon mentioned, “In a situation where Korean companies feel the pinch of the global economic recession, we will augment the support group’s services to revivify the business activities of companies operating in PTV. To that end, the building of infrastructures and networks within the complex will be given priority. Efforts to strengthen the R&D capabilities of resident companies and sophisticate support systems are also underway. First of all, since our support services for resident companies began this year, small-scale, pilot projects will be executed to grasp companies’ real demands and then we will gradually expand the coverage of our support.”
