Yoon pledges to invest 500 trillion won to turn Yongin into global semiconductor base

President Yoon Suk Yeol, left, speaks on building a semiconductor mega cluster during the 23rd public livelihood at Yongin City Hall in Gyeonggi on Monday. [JOINT PRESS CORPS]

President Yoon Suk Yeol promised to invest around 500 trillion won ($372.86 billion) in Yongin to make the city a global chips production base as part of a larger project to build a semiconductor mega cluster in southern Gyeonggi on Monday.

"Of approximately 622 trillion won to be invested in the semiconductor mega cluster project, about 500 trillion won will be earmarked for Yongin," Yoon said at a town hall meeting in Yongin, Gyeonggi. He said he envisioned the city as a "global semiconductor production base representing Korea."

Yoon further promised to enact legislation to expand the autonomy of major special cities, namely Gyeonggi's Yongin, Suwon and Goyang and South Gyeongsang's Changwon, as part of efforts to accelerate urban development plans and grow strategic industries.

The passing of a special law may give these cities, which have populations of over 1 million each but enjoy less autonomy, more room for setting policies involving construction, transportation, education and other infrastructure projects.

This includes the ability to grant permits for the construction of high-rise buildings, arboretums and gardens in these special cities.

Yoon held his 23rd public livelihood debate, involving officials and civilians. The debate focused on developing Yongin into "Korea's new growth engine hub" and urged deliberations to speed up the creation of a semiconductor mega cluster and relocation plans for existing companies.

Yoon noted that Yongin, with a population of 1.1 million, has been one of Korea's fastest-growing cities over the past 30 years.

Yongin was named a special city in January 2022 and is being developed as a representative global semiconductor production base and IT industry hub.

Yoon said that Yongin's population is expected to surpass 1.5 million once the semiconductor cluster is built and a new town to house workers for the hub is built. This will create a residential and cultural complex in the city, attracting both retirees and young people, he said.

He also promised to expand Yongin's transportation infrastructure," including speeding along the construction of a "semiconductor highway" to streamline transport to and from the mega cluster.

The Yoon administration announced last year a plan to build the world's largest semiconductor mega cluster in southern Gyeonggi, which is expected to be completed in 2047 with investments from major companies, including Samsung Electronics and SK hynix.

The cluster includes Gyeonggi cities like Pyeongtaek, Hwaseong, Yongin and Icheon.

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport said on Monday that it is speeding along the creation of a semiconductor mega cluster centered around the Yongin national industrial complex. It plans to finalize application plans within the first quarter of this year and the approval process by the first quarter of next year.

The ministry will begin site development construction at the end of 2026. To begin construction of the national industrial complex by then, the ministry said it would prepare a relocation plan for more than 70 existing companies.

The office said Yoon, since the beginning of the year, has traveled a total of 4,970 kilometers for the public livelihood debates as of last week, equivalent to making a round trip between Seoul and Busan six times.

Liberal lawmakers have likened Yoon's government-public town halls, held across the nation, to campaigning activities ahead of the April 10 general election, while the presidential office has stressed they are to enable the president's direct communication with the public.

Yoon's office said that 359 governmental tasks to improve people's livelihoods were confirmed through these debates, of which 168 are direct suggestions from the public, and 191 are policy tasks announced by related ministries.

Yoon met with 1,671 people through the past 22 town halls, it added.

According to the latest survey released by pollster Realmeter, Yoon's approval rating dropped to 36.5 percent, down 2.1 percentage points from the previous week.

This marked the fourth consecutive week that Yoon's approval ratings have declined after reaching 41.9 percent in the fourth week of February.

Those who evaluated Yoon's performances negatively increased by 1.7 percentage points to 60.1 percent.

The latest Realmeter poll was conducted on 2,509 voters aged 18 or older nationwide from last Monday to Friday.

In a separate Realemeter poll released Monday, approval ratings for Yoon's People Power Party (PPP) also slid 0.8 percentage points to 37.1 percent. The liberal Democratic Party recorded 42.8 percent, up 2 percentage points.

BY SARAH KIM [kim.sarah@joongang.co.kr]