Industry Minister Kim Jung-kwan, left, attends a parliamentary industry committee meeting at the National Assembly in Seoul, May 19. Yonhap
Industry Minister Kim Jung-kwan on Friday called for active reinvestment of profits earned by the booming semiconductor industry in a bid to make Korea a global power in the artificial intelligence (AI) era.
Kim made the remarks in a social media post amid ongoing discussions in Korea about the best way to share or use windfall profits of major semiconductor companies.
The debate has brewed since Samsung Electronics, Korea's largest conglomerate and the world's biggest memory chip maker, was recently embroiled in a labor-management conflict over performance-based bonuses amid forecasts that the company's operating profit could reach 300 trillion ($199.5 billion) this year on the back of the global AI boom.
Following the monthslong conflict, the labor and management reached a wage agreement last week, under which Samsung decided to allocate a special semiconductor performance bonus equivalent to 10.5 percent of business performance earnings, without a cap.
"The world has entered a race against time to secure leadership in the AI sector. In key AI industries, including semiconductors, an all-out competition with national stakes is under way, with rival countries working to become winners in the AI era through massive investments on an unprecedented scale," Kim wrote in a Facebook post.
"We are at a critical moment where we need to channel the profits generated by the semiconductor industry into productive reinvestment in preparations for the future," he stressed.
The minister said the semiconductor industry should not become "complacent" with the current performance, but stay vigilant to further boost competitiveness and find new growth engines in next-generation semiconductors and in the foundry sector.
"Let me emphasize once again: the foremost principle in the use of corporate profits must be productive reinvestment," he wrote, vowing government support for companies making bold investment decisions, from financial assistance to regulatory reforms.
Contrary to the industry minister's remarks, Labor Minister Kim Young-hoon has recently called for a public debate on social distribution of excess profits of conglomerates, saying such a measure could promote shared and sustainable growth of both major companies and their subcontractors.
Source: Korea Times News
