Yongin Mayor Lee Sangil Visits ASML Headquarters, Says "Cooperation to Expand Yongin's Semiconductor Ecosystem"

Visited Veldhoven and Eindhoven in Succession
Benchmarked Brainport and Innovation Campus
ASML COO: “We Value Cooperation with Yongin”
Lee Sangil: “We Will Continue Administrative Support for ASML’s Investment”

Lee Sangil, mayor of Yongin Special City, who is visiting the Netherlands, visited the headquarters of semiconductor equipment maker ASML on October 28 (local time) to discuss ways to strengthen cooperation. He also visited advanced-industry sites in Veldhoven and Eindhoven to explore city-to-city exchanges and the possibility of establishing an advanced technology innovation campus.

Yongin Special City Mayor Lee Sang-il speaks with Mayor Delhez at Veldhoven City Hall in the Netherlands on the 28th (local time). Courtesy of Yongin City.

Mayor Lee and a Yongin City delegation held a meeting at ASML headquarters that day with Frederic Schneider-Maunoury, senior executive vice president and chief operating officer (COO), Choi Han Jong, CEO of ASML Korea, and others, and toured some of the facilities. ASML is the only company in the world that manufactures extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography equipment, which is required for ultra-fine semiconductor processes.

“We consider our cooperation with Yongin City, which plays an important role in Korea’s semiconductor ecosystem, to be very important,” COO Schneider-Maunoury said. “We look forward to continuing our constructive cooperation with Yongin City.”

Mayor Lee said, “ASML’s investment will help strengthen the competitiveness of Korea’s semiconductor industry and expand Yongin’s semiconductor ecosystem, so we will continue to provide administrative support.”

Yongin City and ASML Korea signed an agreement in December 2024 to establish an office in the cooperation complex within the general industrial complex of the Yongin Semiconductor Cluster in Wonsam-myeon, Cheoin-gu.

Under the agreement, ASML Korea will establish a technical support center on a 7,577-square-meter site in Block A6-3 of the cooperation complex. The facility will provide technical support and maintenance and repairs needed to operate semiconductor equipment, and is expected to employ around 800 people.

The meeting also addressed ways to train semiconductor industry professionals. When COO Schneider-Maunoury asked about plans to secure talent, Mayor Lee outlined cooperation with local universities and the establishment of a specialized semiconductor high school, which is scheduled to open in spring 2027.

On the 28th (local time), Mayor Lee Sang-il introduces Yongin to Mayor Delhez and Veldhoven city officials at Veldhoven City Hall. Provided by Yongin City.

“Yongin cannot meet all of its workforce needs on its own, but we are making efforts in various areas to train as many highly skilled professionals as possible,” Mayor Lee said. He also described how the city provided a training space at City Hall for the Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST) to run an executive program for people including representatives of local semiconductor materials, parts, and equipment companies.

Earlier that morning, Mayor Lee held talks for about an hour and a half at Veldhoven City Hall with Mayor Marcel Delhez and others on exchanges and cooperation. Home to ASML’s headquarters and research and development campus, Veldhoven is a key area of Brainport, known as the Silicon Valley of Europe. Anne Verhaagh, an international relations strategic advisor at the Brainport Development Corporation, also attended the meeting.

Mayor Lee introduced the large-scale semiconductor investment projects Samsung Electronics and SK hynix are pursuing at three sites in Yongin. He described the six and four production lines that Samsung Electronics and SK hynix will build, respectively, as well as a semiconductor technology research fab and a foundry manufacturing fab to be established at Samsung Electronics’ Giheung Campus.

“It is said that once all these projects are completed, Yongin will have the world’s largest semiconductor ecosystem within a single city,” Mayor Lee said.

On the 28th (local time), at Veldhoven City Hall, Mayor Lee Sangil (sixth from right) and a Yongin City delegation pose for a commemorative photo with Veldhoven Mayor Marcel Delhez (fifth from right), Strategic Program Manager Erik Vermeester, Public Diplomacy and Communications Officer Ester Volgestein, Strategic Adviser for International Relations Ann Verhaagh, and International Relations Coordinator Robin Heijmans. Photo provided by Yongin City.

He also mentioned rising demand for memory semiconductors such as high-bandwidth memory (HBM) as artificial intelligence (AI) expands, saying, “Production can be increased only if ASML’s EUV lithography equipment is supplied in a timely manner.”

“Just as Samsung Electronics and SK hynix are working with ASML, I hope exchanges and cooperation between Yongin and Veldhoven, both of which are committed to developing the semiconductor industry, will also become more active,” Mayor Lee said.

Mayor Delhez replied, “I think Veldhoven resembles Yongin City in many ways. We will work to promote exchanges and cooperation between the two cities, including by considering a visit to Yongin.”

The delegation then visited High Tech Campus Eindhoven, where it held a meeting with Elco Brinkhoff, CEO of PhotonDelta, an organization that supports the development of photonic semiconductor technologies, and others. The campus is home to more than 300 advanced technology companies, research institutions, and startups, and employs more than 13,000 people.

Mayor Lee expressed interest in the approach to technology development through collaboration among companies and said it would be worth exploring the creation of an innovation campus with similar functions in Yongin.

Mayor Lee Sang-il and ASML COO Frederic Schneider-Monory talk at ASML headquarters on the 28th. Courtesy of Yongin City.

“We could consider ways to further expand the ecosystem for advanced technologies such as semiconductors and AI, including by having the city lead the creation of an innovation campus and provide incentives to companies with advanced technologies,” Mayor Lee said.

Mayor Lee also met and exchanged greetings with Jeroen Dijsselbloem, mayor of Eindhoven, at ASML headquarters.

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