Shin Jeong-hoon: "Are You Turning Even Honam Investment into Political Wrangling?" ... Urges Semiconductor Jobs Plan

Na Kyung-won's "arm-twisting companies" claim rebutted; demand to call SK chairman as witness criticized

Ministry's plan to train 4,000 workers: "Must lead to actual hiring"

Calls for dedicated task force, job-creation estimates, and annual employment plans

The political dispute between the ruling and opposition parties over the creation of a semiconductor cluster in Honam is expanding beyond corporate investment to regional employment policy. Rep. Shin Jeong-hoon of the Democratic Party of Korea has pushed back against allegations raised by the People Power Party that companies are being pressured to invest, while also calling on the government to draw up specific job-creation plans tied to the growth of the semiconductor industry.

On the 13th, Rep. Shin Jeong-hoon (Naju-Hwasun), a member of the National Assembly’s Climate, Energy, Environment and Labor Committee, criticized the People Power Party’s objections to investment in the Honam semiconductor cluster and called on the Ministry of Employment and Labor to proactively develop employment policies during a parliamentary audit of the ministry.

Shin Junghoon

The controversy was fueled mainly by claims of “arm-twisting companies” raised by People Power Party lawmakers, including Rep. Na Kyung-won, and their demand that SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won be called as a witness at the parliamentary audit.

“It is inappropriate to make it appear as though large-scale investment at the national level is being driven by unilateral pressure from the Democratic Party,” Rep. Shin said. In particular, he drew a line under the political dispute over the demand to call Chairman Chey as a witness, saying, “It sounds like they intend to use the parliamentary audit as a tool for political wrangling.”

“It is necessary to review companies’ investment plans when pressure to invest overseas is weakening the domestic industrial base. But it is hard to accept turning investment in Honam, which has been relatively neglected throughout the country’s long industrialization process, into a political controversy,” Rep. Shin said.

Rep. Shin also stressed the need to expand the region’s industrial base, saying, “Let Honam make a decent living, too. This is only the beginning.”

Regarding the location of the semiconductor cluster, he pointed to the fact that Honam has abundant water and energy resources but has been unable to make full use of them because of its limited industrial base. The aim, he said, is to link the region’s resources to the development of advanced industries and turn that into new jobs and economic activity.

Rep. Shin also urged the government to develop its employment policies in concrete terms in step with the pace of corporate investment.

During a National Assembly inquiry last August, Minister of Employment and Labor Kim Young-hoon referred to a plan to train at least 4,000 skilled workers in the southwestern region. More recently, SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won expressed his commitment to investment, saying construction would begin first even if the supply of electricity and water were delayed.

Rep. Shin said the government’s employment response, by comparison, has been limited to training workers, despite these corporate moves.

To address this, he said, the government should comprehensively assess and prepare for jobs created in construction during the development of the semiconductor cluster, employment after the facilities begin operating, and jobs generated in related industries. He added that, in the process of commissioning related research from the National Assembly Research Service, he had confirmed that there was insufficient research on the actual scale of job creation and specific implementation plans.

Rep. Shin also called on the Ministry of Employment and Labor to form a task force (TF) dedicated to creating jobs for the Honam semiconductor cluster. He further stressed the need to commission research to assess the scale of job creation and to draw up annual employment plans that specify the types and number of jobs in each field, distinguishing between direct and indirect employment.

He also proposed measures to ensure that local talent leads to actual hiring. These include linking existing employment support programs with regional universities and educational institutions to train workers needed in industry, and tying voluntary new-hiring targets set by private companies to government support.

“Employment measures for strategic national industries must go beyond training 4,000 workers,” Rep. Shin said. “The Ministry of Employment and Labor must take proactive steps to develop job-creation plans for each field and establish a framework that enables the training of local talent to lead to corporate hiring and, in turn, to the revitalization of the regional economy.”

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