Interior ministry clears new semiconductor support unit at industry ministry

The interior ministry said Tuesday it had published a decree creating a semiconductor innovation task force at the industry ministry, part of an expansion as the ministry takes on duties under the country's new chip law.

The presidential decree, which took effect the same day, raises the ministry's authorized staff to 820 from 812, with the general service corps growing to 810 from 802. The task force, headed by a director-general with three divisions beneath it, accounts for most of the new structure.

It is charged with carrying out the tasks created by the Special Act on Strengthening and Supporting the Competitiveness of the Semiconductor Industry, including a basic plan for the sector and the operation of a committee on semiconductor competitiveness, and with supporting the rapid progress of major chip projects, including the semiconductor cluster in the southwest.

"Amid intensifying competition for semiconductor supremacy, the Semiconductor Innovation Growth Support Task Force will support corporate investment and technological innovation, including the megaprojects, and further consolidate our semiconductor competitiveness," Industry Minister Kim Jung-kwan said.

The task force is temporary, set to expire on Sept. 30, 2029. Responsibility for promoting the semiconductor industry, previously held by the ministry's advanced industry policy office, moves to it, and the clause covering chips, displays, imaging devices, electronic components and printed electronics is narrowed to displays and imaging devices alone.

Separately, the decree creates an India trade cooperation division under the trade cooperation bureau, also temporary, until Sept. 30, 2028, with four staff. The government cited India as a large market with the world's biggest population and an economy growing at around 7 percent, and said the division would handle trade negotiations, investment support and market-opening work with the country and the wider Southwest Asian region.

The ministry said the changes follow the December reorganization that created an industrial resources and security office and an industrial AI policy office, and respond to the cooperation agenda that grew out of the summit with India in April. The reorganization also adds three new units of work covering the defense industry and civilian-military technology cooperation.

The industrial policy office is renamed the industrial growth office, and the task force sits beneath it.

"Semiconductors are an essential supply chain for all industries, including AI, automobiles and home appliances, and a core industry of the national economy that accounts for about 50 percent of the Republic of Korea's exports," Kim said.