The Ministry of Information and Communication (MIC) aims to attract five research centers here from world-leading info-tech firms for the next eight years. An MIC official, who wanted to be identified by just by his surname Chung, said that the ministry set up an eight-year plan to entice 40 research and development (R&D) centers to Korea. "Foreign research labs are starting to establish here thanks to our strong IT infrastructure and trend-conscious early adopters. We hope to help Korea achieve the much-touted goal of becoming the R&D hub of Northeast Asia," Chung said. Until 2003, Korea retained only a pair of legitimate IT research centers, established by U.S.-headquartered subsidiaries of Fairchild and Motorola. But for last year alone, the ministry drew in five major research investment centers from world-renowned businesses, such as Intel, Fraunhofer, International Business Machines, Hewlett-Packard and Siemens. The ministry also signed many memorandums of understanding (MOU) last year with Caspian, Cambridge University and Agilent Technologies, which are expected to build research labs this year. In addition, the ministry is now in negotiations with another group of high-tech players, including Qualcomm, EMC, Microsoft, Xybernaut, Cyberlaser and On Semiconductor. "We will spare nothing for companies that select Korea as their investment destination. The Ministry of Planning and Budget also promised to increase the budgets to the incoming firms," Chung said. He expected that the construction of an R&D cluster in Sangam, western Seoul, would spur an increase of offshore entities when it is completed in late 2007. The Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) contributed its efforts to the nation's scheme of evolving to become the research hub of Northeast Asia. The MOST wooed four research investors last year _ Institut Pasteur, University of Cambridge Cavendish Laboratory, DuPont and Russia's State Optical Institute. The MOST also plans to come out with mid- to long-term plans of attracting expatriate research labs. But the ministry is not likely to be as active as the MIC. "We will not channel a large sum of money to draw foreign R&D centers as we did last year with Institut Pasteur. That case was an exception," a MOST official said. In late 2003, the MOST promised to subsidize 100 million euros to build Institut Pastuer's Korean lab and channeled 6.5 billion won into it last year.