Lee to Chair Second Mega Project Review Today... Honam Semiconductor "Speed Drive" and Mutual Growth Strategies Discussed (Comprehensive)

In-depth Review of Gwangju Military Airfield Relocation, Power and Water Supply Plans
Resolving Permitting Bottlenecks with Regulatory and Government Innovation... Accelerating Project Timelines
Examining Chungcheong and Yeongnam Mega Projects... Spreading Investment Benefits Across the Region and Industrial Ecosystem

President Lee Jae-myung will preside over the Second Public-Private Joint Inspection Meeting for the "Korea Grand Leap: Three Major Mega Projects" at the Blue House on August 10. Following the first meeting last month, where the site for the Honam Semiconductor Cluster was confirmed as Gwangju Military Airfield, this session will review a concrete timetable to accelerate project implementation, including the relocation of military facilities, securing power and water resources, and improving regulations and permitting processes. Plans to ensure that the benefits of large-scale investments spread throughout local industries and to small and medium-sized enterprises will also be discussed.

President Lee Jae-myung is speaking at the Mega Project Public-Private Joint Inspection Meeting held at the Blue House on the 6th. July 6, 2026, Yonhap News Agency.

According to the Blue House, President Lee will chair the “Second Public-Private Joint Inspection Meeting for Mega Projects” at 2 p.m. that day. It comes just over a month since the first meeting held on July 6. The Blue House explained that this session is not only to support rapid execution of mega projects but also to discuss ways to expand the investment benefits across all regions and throughout the industrial ecosystem.

Attendees include Chief of Staff Kang Hoon-sik, Policy Chief Kim Yong-beom, National Security Advisor Wi Sung-lac, along with Prime Minister Han Sung-sook, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy & Finance Koo Yoon-chul, and Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Science and ICT Bae Kyung-hoon. Ministers from the Ministry of National Defense, Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment, and the Ministry of Planning and Budget will attend, as well as the Minister for Government Policy Coordination, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Air Force Chief of Staff, and the unified special mayor of Jeonnam-Gwangju. From industry, President Kim Yong-kwan of Samsung Electronics and President Jung Seung-il of SK’s Future Growth Business will be present.

The meeting will start with a report from the Office for Government Policy Coordination on "Regulatory and Government Innovation Initiatives to Support Mega Projects." The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy and the Ministry of Science and ICT will each present plans for cooperation and mutual growth for the three major mega projects. The Ministry of Industry and the Ministry of Economy & Finance will separately report on the progress and plans for the Chungcheong and Yeongnam regional mega projects.

The main point of interest is the next steps for the Honam Semiconductor Cluster. The Minister of National Defense, the Air Force Chief of Staff, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, as well as the Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport and the Minister of Climate, Energy and Environment, will directly report on the cluster’s site and power and water supply plans. Discussions will consolidate the action plans by each ministry for the relocation of the military airfield, creation of the industrial complex, and development of supporting infrastructure.

At the first public-private joint inspection meeting on July 6, the government decided on the Gwangju Military Airfield—an area of approximately 2.5 million pyeong—as the site for the Honam Semiconductor Cluster, where Samsung Electronics and SK hynix each plan to build two fabrication plants. On July 29, the Ministry of Land designated the Gwangju Military Airfield as the candidate site for the Honam Semiconductor National Industrial Complex, marking the beginning of the administrative process.

The greatest challenge is how quickly the military airfield functions can be relocated. Within the military, it is understood that redistributing the functions of the Air Force’s 1st Fighter Wing currently based at Gwangju Airfield to other bases will take at least three years. If the semiconductor complex is to wait for the completion of a new airbase, the overall development schedule could be delayed. Therefore, intensive discussions are expected on a plan to transfer military functions in phases while simultaneously establishing the industrial complex. At the first meeting, Policy Chief Kim Yong-beom also indicated that using the site incrementally by relocating existing base functions in stages could be coordinated with the Air Force.

Securing power and water supply is another critical agenda item. The new Honam semiconductor industrial complex, set to house four fabs by Samsung Electronics and SK hynix, is estimated to require a long-term power supply of 6.3GW and 650,000 tons of industrial water per day. The government is considering linking existing power sources, such as the Hanbit Nuclear Power Plant, and renewable energy in the Honam region—including wind and solar. The key issue will not only be securing sufficient power but also building a transmission network quickly enough to deliver the generated electricity to the industrial complex on schedule.

On this day, President Lee is also expected to direct officials to streamline regulations and administrative procedures to accelerate project timelines. During the first meeting, he pointed out the issue of prolonged industrial complex development due to environmental impact assessments and various permitting processes, remarking on the Yongin semiconductor cluster that, “Even what is considered a ‘fast’ case like the Yongin General Industrial Complex does not seem speedy to me.” Instead of the current approach of ministries proceeding sequentially, implementing parallel processes for permitting and infrastructure construction is likely to be discussed.

This meeting will also focus on strategies for mutually beneficial cooperation, ensuring that the gains from the mega projects are not limited to large corporations. The plan is to connect local businesses and universities, as well as small and medium-sized enterprises, with Honam’s semiconductor, Chungcheong’s advanced industries, and Yeongnam’s physical artificial intelligence (AI) investments—thereby spreading the impact of those investments into materials, components, equipment, and talent cultivation.

In addition to the Honam Semiconductor initiative, the government will review the status of the Chungcheong and Yeongnam mega projects. The vision is to foster the Chungcheong region as a hub for advanced packaging, including high-bandwidth memory (HBM), and to connect the Yeongnam region with cutting-edge manufacturing, such as robotics, autonomous driving physical AI, aerospace, defense industry, and small modular reactors (SMR). Plans to build large-scale AI data centers in Ulsan, Donghae, Sejong, and other locations—together with companies such as SK, GS, and Naver—are also a core pillar of the mega projects.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.