The government is strengthening corporate support for automotive semiconductor localization.

The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (Minister Lee Chang-yang) announced on the 29th that it will launch the 'Automotive Semiconductor Performance Evaluation and Certification Support Program' in earnest to foster the domestic automotive semiconductor industry.

According to the Automotive Semiconductor Performance Evaluation and Certification Support Program Implementation Plan (Draft), the program will support performance and reliability evaluation and improvement across the entire cycle from the wafer stage to integration into finished vehicles, including not only chip-board-module performance evaluation but also new vehicle environmental condition evaluation and reliability technical support and consultation. The government plans to invest 25 billion won over three years, and this year will conclude agreements with 30 companies to support 133 performance evaluation certifications.

For service support, demand companies will bear only 10% of the required costs, while various performance evaluation support items will be provided on a one-stop basis through specialized research institutions. This is expected to alleviate time and cost burdens for domestic semiconductor companies' market entry in the automotive semiconductor sector and strengthen product competitiveness.

Additionally, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy plans to implement the 'Automotive Semiconductor Functional Safety and Reliability Industry Innovation Infrastructure Construction Project' by investing a total of 16.9 billion won over five years starting from 2022 to strengthen functional safety and reliability certification support for automotive semiconductors.

The ministry plans to establish an 'Automotive Semiconductor Ecosystem Strengthening Strategy' in the second half of this year to support the strengthening of competitiveness for small and medium-sized semiconductor companies and localization of the automotive semiconductor supply chain.

Park Jae-young, Director of Manufacturing Industry Policy at the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, stated, "We plan to strengthen corporate product competitiveness and make every effort to revitalize the automotive semiconductor ecosystem by advancing test certification infrastructure and performance evaluation certification systems to conduct functional safety and reliability evaluations that simulate real vehicle environments."