1、6KIET Industrial Economic Review1.IntroductionIn 2019,the Moon Jae-in administration promulgated its“System semicon-ductor vision”as a new growth engine for the sustainable growth of Korea.To achieve this goal,fabless SMEs and a competitive semiconductor ecosystem are regarded as key elements in fos

2、tering the system semiconductor industry in Korea,and new policy directions and alternative policy measures need to be addressed.The Korean governments vision for making Korea a semiconductor power-house by 2030 is aimed at achieving the largest market share in foundry ser-vices and securing 10 perc

3、ent market share in the fabless sector while main-Cover Story The Status of Korean Fabless Firms and Their Cooperation with Set Makers1Shin Jongwon1 This article draws heavily on the research project,entitled Cooperation and Demand-based Innova-tion in the Korean System Semiconductor Industry,(in Ko

4、rean),2020,KIET.Cover Story 7May+June 2022|Vol.27 No.3taining Koreas leadership position in the memory semiconductor market.This vision for the Korean semiconductor industry reflects the current eco-nomic environment of the industry.In fact,the competitiveness of the Korean semiconductor industry is

5、 challenged by a number of factors,such as a high dependency on memory chip markets,sharply increasing demand for system semiconductors in emerging industries(for example,artificial intelligence,autonomous vehicles,robots and so on),the rapid growth of the Chinese semiconductor industry,the US-China

6、 semiconductor war and so on.This calls for a new vision and strategy that includes expanding government R&D investment,supporting fabless SMEs through public investment,and creating demand for system semiconductors in the public sector.In order to foster a competitive semiconductor ecosystem,an act