New programs aim to keep retired tech professionals from being poached

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New programs aim to keep retired tech professionals from being poached

People visit a semiconductor trade fair in Shanghai, China, in March last year. [YONHAP/REUTERS]

People visit a semiconductor trade fair in Shanghai, China, in March last year. [YONHAP/REUTERS]

 
Special programs will be introduced to employ retired tech and science professionals, aiming to prevent technology outflow and rival countries from poaching them.  
 
The news of former Samsung Electronics' LCD division president Jang Won-ki accepting a vice chairman position at Chinese semiconductor company Beijing Eswin Computing Technology created a stir in 2020. Countries such as China are infamous for offering high-ranking employees higher wages and asking them to leak Korean companies' technological secrets.
 
Jang ended up turning down the job, but he isn’t the only professional that has been approached by other countries.
 
“The United States needs 300,000 more semiconductor personnel and China needs 250,000, and they are competing to secure talent,” said Ahn Ki-hyun, executive director at the Korea Semiconductor Industry Association. “China tends to offer high salaries to key personnel in Korea’s semiconductor and other important industries, eventually hiring them.”
 
According to the Korea Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) and National Intelligence Service, there were 121 cases of technology outflow over the past five years, resulting in damages of 20 trillion won ($16.7 billion).  
 
Retired employees are one of the biggest targets as they have the knowledge and are usually seeking work. 
 
Trying not to lose important talent to countries abroad, the Office for Government Policy Coordination announced Jan. 20 it will be compiling a data base of people in key industries that should be restricted from taking new jobs abroad.
 
The government put forth a special employment program last month which aims to give jobs to retired executives and high-ranking employees as patent examiners at KIPO.  

 
Cyber security, space, quantum mechanics, artificial intelligence, hydrogen, biotechnology, advanced robot manufacturing, 5G and 6G, secondary battery and semiconductors and chips are the 10 fields considered as key technologies, given special employment offers.
 
KIPO announced it aims to employee a total of 1,000 to 2,000 people by 2027. The employment contracts will last five years, and can be extended up to three times.  
 
Around 300 people retire per year from government research centers and 1,500 from the semiconductor industry.
 
Adding professionals is also expected to ramp up the efficiency of patent examinations.  
 
"There are 935 patent examiners who each go through 250 to 300 patents a year," said a spokesperson for KIPO. "This is twice to almost quadruple the workload in countries such as the United States and China."
 
As of 2020, one patent examiner was responsible for assessing 74 patents a year in the United States, and 109 for China.  
 
“Countries around the world are competing to become the leading nation in technology, and putting in all their efforts into acquiring key personnel,” said Korea Patent Attorneys Association Chairman Hong Jang-won. “Korea should also act fast if it doesn’t want to lose competitiveness in key fields such as semiconductors.”
 
 

BY KIM BANG-HYUN [lee.taehee2@joongang.co.kr]
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