The South Korean electronics industry plans to pour a combined 4 trillion won (US$3.4 billion) into the development of light emitting diode (LED) technologies over the next three years, government officials said Tuesday.

The investment, unveiled at an industrywide meeting of leading companies’ senior officials and Knowledge Economy Minister Choi Kyung-hwan, is aimed at building up the country’s competitiveness in the LED sector and its overall research and development capabilities by 2012.

South Korea is a front-runner in the LED industry with local companies being the first to make commercial LED TV sets.

South Korean companies’ presence in the global LED market is expected to soar to 21.2 percent for this year and may reach 28.9 percent in 2010 from 9.9 percent in 2008, industry sources said.

At Tuesday’s meeting, the executives from companies including Samsung, LG and SK Telecom confirmed that the industry has made progress in locally built so-called metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) machines used to deposit thin layers of atoms onto a semiconductor wafer.

The first indigenous MOCVDs, for which the local industry depend on imports, is expected to reach the market next year.

They said that businesses are scrambling to meet calls for more eco-friendly products and asked the government to extend more tax breaks and offer incentives.

YonhapNewsAgency

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