New LG Philips LCD plant opens

LG Philips LCD celebrated the completion of its newest liquid crystal display panel production plant, P7, yesterday in Paju, Gyeonggi province. LG Philips LCD is a Korean-Dutch joint venture formed in 1999 between LG Electronics and Philips Electronics. This marks the start of full operations at the plant, which will produce 45,000 flat panels for LCD television sets a month; production will be increased to 90,000 panels by the end of the year. Actual commercial production of seventh generation LCD panels began in January. The seven-story factory is about the size of six soccer fields put together, making it the largest LCD production facility in the world; the company spent 5.3 trillion won ($5.6 million) to establish the plant. The seventh-generation production line produces panels that are 1,950 by 2,250 mm in size, which can be cut to make 42-inch and 47-inch TV LCD panels. LG Philips LCD said that the plant created immediate jobs for 25,000 people and indirect jobs for 42,000 people. This plant is a key part of LG’s “Paju Display Cluster” project, in which it built a whole complex from scratch in Paju, less than an hour’s drive from Seoul and just shy of the North Korean border. The cluster includes basic infrastructure such as waste disposal facilities and a power generator, as well as a dormitory that can hold up to 4,000 people. Other elements to be added in the Paju Display Cluster will be a TFT-LCD panel production factory, an LCD TV assembly plant for LG Electronics, and various accessories companies, many of which are already under construction. LG Philips LCD will invest a total of 25 trillion won in the Paju complex by 2010. President Roh Moo-hyun, who attended the ceremony yesterday, said that LG Philips LCD was an example of how foreign investment is very important in giving energy and continuous growth to Korea’s economy. “There should not be unfair benefits for foreign capital, but foreign capital will not be at a disadvantage either,” he said. by Wohn Dong-hee, Kim Chang-woo