Ignacy Giżyński
Have you heard that the South Korean government is allocating around 40 billion won (about 30 million dollars) to continue being the world leader in display production? All to maintain an advantage over China, which has been rapidly catching up in recent years and is increasingly boldly competing with giants like LG and Samsung.
The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE) wants to support several research projects related to next-generation screens – mainly OLED and so-called inorganic light-emitting displays. It may sound complicated, but in practice, it’s about making televisions, monitors, and smartphones have even better picture quality, be more energy-efficient, and more durable.
Entities that are qualified for the program will receive significant funding - large companies can expect to get back as much as half of their costs, while smaller enterprises can receive an even larger percentage. Universities and research institutes, on the other hand, are set to receive one hundred percent support.
Importantly, if these funds lead to the development of groundbreaking technology that later achieves commercial success, companies will have to return part of their profits to the government in the form of royalties. In this way, everyone – both the innovators and the government – is meant to benefit from the further growth of the display industry.
South Korea hopes that such actions will help maintain its leading position in the market, while also allowing it to become less dependent on foreign giants, especially in the areas of augmented reality (XR) and the metaverse. We can therefore expect even more interesting devices and groundbreaking solutions to hit the market over the next few years – particularly since Chinese competition is not resting and is accelerating its efforts year by year.
