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Kim Yong Bae, Director of the New Growth Engine Display Center (who concurrently serves as professor of the Natural Sciences Division, Department of Chemistry, Konkuk University), points out in a special interview on the occasion of the 1st anniversary of the Korea IT Times publication, As displays, whose market potential is very great, have been selected as one of the 10 next-generation growth engine industries, the necessity of generating new technology as well as new product development to be able to take leading positions in world market is gathering strength . First of all, Kim explains that the goal of the display business is to substitute TV in households with LCD, adding that to accomplish this, further technological innovation is necessary. To make PDPs and LCDs cheaper, manufacturers have to cut down on prime costs and come up with new production methods, he points out. In this context, the director said that the New Growth Engine Display Center s final price target is to bring the cost of screens down to $7 per inch by 2010, thereby allowing customers to be able to buy 32-inch LCD for just 1 million won. Regarding the New Growth Engine Display Center s goal, Prof. Kim emphasizes, Through this project, our Center plans to build pre-eminent display industry technology and to create the national wealth of the future by realizing the dream of the display industry through strategic national RDM (Research, Development and Management) . For this, the Center is putting spurs to developing flat-board display core technology to be able to achieve the $20,000 national income goal in concert with the industrial and the academic worlds. The professor said that balanced development of the LCD "rear industry" as well as its infrastructure, such as parts material and equipment supply are an important priority of the Center. Moreover, Kim has committed himself to concentrating the efforts of the Center to securing low cost/high accumulation technology corresponding to the future demand for multimedia entertainment/ information via high-definition, highbrightness, mass production technology development as well as basic core element technology. Domestic display makers such as Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics want to maintain the country's leadership position in the world display market by securing OLED product technology, which is at an R&D stage, in order to steal a march in the world market for PDPs while sustaining its top position in the TFT-LCD field, Kim said. By 2010, he predicted that exports by Korean display makers would reach $40 billion, accounting for a half of the world market and creating over 100,000 jobs. In saying so, the director also stresses the importance of part localization, pointing out that Korea's supplier companies are behind still compared with Japan in terms of core technology. He further underscores that if the parts industry develops and part localization succeeds in, IT can advance in Korea successfully. Kim said that last year the Center had focused its efforts on developing super low-cost TFT-LCD technology, nextgeneration PDP technology and OLED technology for fourth-generation HDTV. Taking a step further, the Center is concentrating its energies on developing process technology for super low-cost, large-size HDTV to reduce production costs in the field of TFT-LCD and PDP. In the sphere of OLED, commercialization technology development for initial market penetration is the Center's goal. Kim advised that the parts and material manufacturers as well as the equipment builders should also concentrate on developing technology in the interests of boosting industry added value as well as strengthening competitiveness including the development of next-generation core display technology. In particular, by September 2005 the Center aims to develop display technology for high-performance HDTV in a variety of price and sizes. In this context, Kim pointed out that in addition to Samsung SDI, a further 10 companies, plus 6 universities and 2 government- funded laboratories are developing fourth-generation HDTV OLED technology. At the same time, some 8 companies, including LG Electronics, plus 6 universities and POSTECH (Pohang University of Science and Technology) are carrying out super large-size next-generation PDP technology development. With regard to super low-cost TFTLCD technology development, 7 companies plus Samsung Electronics and three universities are working on a project to this end. Currently, world display demand is expanding rapidly with priority given to flat board displays. Accordingly, the world flat display market is growing on average by 16% yearly. As such it is expected to rise from the $29.6 billion recorded in 2002, to $62.5 billion in 2005 and to $104.6 billion in 2010. Korea is forecasted to hold first rank in displays in 2010, accounting for 45% of world market, representing an increase from the 29.6% in 2002 to 38.4% in 2005. To accomplish such a goal smoothly, he emphasizes once more that the acceleration of technological innovation to secure market competitive superiority is above all important.
