LG announces plans for R&D belt

LG Electronics Co. unveiled yesterday plans to establish a network of digital equipment research and development centers in Seoul. Korea’s second-biggest electronics maker has long been convinced that the road to overtaking Samsung Electronics must be paved with innovative new ideas. LG Electronics said it plans to spend 260 billion won ($267 million) on a new 125,628-square-meter (31-acre) research center in Yangje-dong, southern Seoul. Scheduled for completion in 2009, the center will comprise 30 floors, five of which will be underground, and hold up to 4,200 employees. The center is expected to focus mainly on researching personal digital assistants and computer networks for the home. “When the new center opens, we will be able to form a research and development belt in Seoul that connects with our research centers in Umyeon-dong, southern Seoul; Gasan-dong in southwestern Seoul, and our digital television research center at Seoul National University,” a spokesman for LG Electronics said. LG Electronics said completing the research belt is central to the company’s goal of becoming one of the world’s top three electronics firms by 2010. By placing the individual centers so close together, the company explained, it hopes to encourage greater interaction between the army of researchers that will be working on the sites. This, it is hoped, will foster a more creative environment. In July last year LG Electronics merged its two mobile gadget research centers in Gyeonggi province into a single facility at Gasan-dong, which boasts 2,500 employees. Right next to the Gasan-dong center, another 20-story LG Electronics research facility is also under construction. Scheduled for completion next year, that facility will be large enough for 3,000 employees developing digital convergence products, the company said. by Kim Chang-woo, Lee Ho-jeong