South Korea's Lee urges speed in launching mega chip projects

SEOUL- South Korean President Lee Jae Myung on Monday ordered officials to move quickly to get to work on major chip and AI projects announced last week.

He warned that delays in permits, land acquisition, and securing power and water supply could undermine the country's bid to dominate advanced industries.

"In this situation, it appears the outcome will be decided by who moves faster and who secures the lead first," Lee told a government meeting. "Only speed matters."

Lee noted that it had taken six years for the Yongin industrial complex to go from site confirmation to ground being broken and that had been considered relatively fast. He called for environmental reviews and other approval processes to be shortened where possible.

Lee said procedures that are usually handled sequentially should instead be pursued at the same time.

Lee called for power and water infrastructure to be secured preemptively, saying electricity would be a particularly important issue for chip projects.

Lee said companies had raised concerns about baseload power supply even though there has been an expansion in renewable energy, and ordered officials to address those concerns in advance.

South Korea last week unveiled more than $576 billion in investment including in chip and AI industries aimed at securing global dominance and encouraging growth beyond the Seoul metropolitan area.

Samsung Electronics 005930.KS and SK Hynix 000660.KS will each invest 400 trillion won ($260 billion) to build new chip manufacturing sites each in the southwest of the country, while another 81 trillion won is expected to be invested in a chip-packaging cluster in the Chungcheong region.

Lee also said government officials and corporate executives should begin discussing specific sites for the projects.

($1 = 1,530.9000 won)

(Reporting by Joyce Lee; Editing by Edwina Gibbs/REUTERS)