The South Korean government will establish an organic light-emitting diode (OLED) manufacturing facility and research and development center in Cheonan, South Chungcheong Province, by spending 528 billion won ($467.8 million) over the next seven years, the largest-ever for a state-led R&D project in its initiative to promote IT component sectors.

The South Chungcheong Province government announced Tuesday that the display platform facility project passed the final feasibility test by the Ministry of Science and ICT.

The government will invest 165.1 billion won to build the four-story panel production facility sitting on an area of 12,913 square meters in Chungnam Techno Park, which will have 61 equipment including display evaporation system. The remaining 363 billion won will be spent on the R&D center that will conduct 66 research projects including encapsulation for flexible OLED panels, cost-cutting measures, development of next-generation displays and technology convergence to create new markets.

The global display market stood at $123.2 billion last year, with liquid crystal displays (LCDs) accounting for 81.8 percent and OLED 19.2 percent. Industry experts predict, however, that the rapidly-growing OLED market would soon overtake LCDs to command an 80.7 percent market share in 2035. Korea is home to the world’s largest OLED makers - LG Display in large-scale OLED panels and Samsung Display in smaller panels.

By Cho Han-pil and Choi Mira

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