The National Assembly's Trade, Industry, Energy, SMEs and Startups Committee is moving to hold a hearing on semiconductor cluster investments in the Honam region, calling Samsung Electronics Executive Chairman Jay Y. Lee and SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won as witnesses.
Committee Chairman Kim Sung-won of the People Power Party has recently been pushing for the hearing with the two business leaders as witnesses, according to a committee official on the 28th. Because the two cases are separate, the committee is considering summoning them on different dates rather than having them appear together. Representative Koo Ja-keun of the People Power Party, the committee's opposition secretary, has also agreed to the plan.
The People Power Party is taking issue with what it says is a shift in Chey's position on investing in a Honam semiconductor cluster. In a lecture at a Korea-China parliamentary league event held at the National Assembly in late April, Chey expressed reservations about the project. Asked at the time whether SK had plans to build a chip plant in Jeonnam, he took a cautious line, saying, "It is true that you have to go where the electricity is, but whether a semiconductor plant should go there is something we are weighing." The party is raising suspicions that government pressure may have been behind his abrupt change of position two months later. The committee says it intends to examine those suspicions at the hearing.
The hearing is expected to cover the decision-making process behind the Honam semiconductor cluster investments as well as broader pending issues. The committee is also considering calling government officials as witnesses at a future hearing.
The committee plans to discuss whether to hold the hearing and the scope of witnesses to be adopted through consultations between the ruling and opposition parties in the near future.
