There has been a setback to South Korean Government’s plan to push for projects that will promote South Korea’s system semiconductor industry. Assessments that require face-to-face evaluation have not taken place due to the aftereffect of COVID-19. As a result, South Korean Government is looking into online assessment as it predicts that the current COVID-19 situation will not settle down any time soon. The industry wants the South Korean Government to take a belt and braces approach in securing fairness if the South Korean Government decides to carry out assessments online.
According to the industry, assessments on Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy’s “2020’s First Future Growth Engines (semiconductor, display, embedded) Project” are being pushed back. It believes that the expected start time of the project will be pushed back by about a month.
This project includes national projects that are being carried out as follow-up measures to “system semiconductor promotion strategy” announced by President Moon Jae-in in last April. It includes 45 projects such as development of next-generation system semiconductor design, device, and process technologies, development of key system semiconductor IPs, and operation of system semiconductor design support centers. $13.4 million (16.55 billion KRW) will be invested annually.
However, project selection process is being delayed due to the aftereffect of COVID-19. Initially, Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE) was looking to finish receiving projects by February 28th and start projects in early April. However, it postponed the deadline to submit projects by 15 days considering the fact that it would be difficult for the semiconductor industry to collaborate due to the rapid spread of COVID-19. The industry believed that assessments would also be pushed back as the deadline was postponed. However, it is understood that assessments have yet to take place.
“Although we were informed that assessments would take place sometime during this month, we were not informed of the exact date.” said a representative for the industry. “Some are concerned that the start date of the project is going to be much later than the initial belief.”

The fact that KEIT (Korea Evaluation Institute of Industrial Technology), which conducts evaluations, is located in Daegu can be another reason why assessments are being delayed. Although an evaluation group can come up to Seoul to conduct assessments, this route does not comply with social distancing.
MOTIE and KEIT have conducted online assessments only for independent entries since March 23rd because they believe that they cannot delay assessments any longer despite a possibility that the current COVID-19 situation will not settle down any time soon.
However, they have yet to make a decision on whether they will conduct online assessments for Future Growth Engines Project because there are minor projects that can be subjected to online assessment and projects that are not subjected to online assessment when project assessment programs need to be submitted all at once. It is heard that MOTIE and KEIT will make a decision regarding this matter soon.
MOTIE is also looking into conducting online assessment on competitive projects.
“We are looking into conducting online assessment on competitive projects as well and we will probably make a decision before the middle of this month.” said a representative for MOTIE. “We need to examine possible side-effects if we replace face-to-face assessment with online assessment.”
The industry believes that the South Korean Government must focus on establishing fairness if it looks to conduct online assessment.
“Because it is difficult to properly understand readiness of an applicant through online assessment, there can be an issue regarding fairness.” said one expert. “Online assessments must be elaborate so that there is not any controversy.”
Staff Reporter Kang, Hyeryung | kang@etnews.com & Staff Reporter Byun, Sanggeun | sgbyun@etnews.com