By Kim Hyun-bin

SK Group will invest 67 trillion won ($48.1 billion) over the next five years to foster the semiconductor, biopharmaceutical and energy industries in areas outside Seoul, Incheon and Gyeonggi Province, Korea's second-largest business group said Wednesday. The investment is largely designed to help revitalize regional economies and achieve a more balanced national development.

"We plan to lead the global market by continuously building new and expanding domestic facilities for sectors such as semiconductors, batteries, biotechnology and R&D," an SK official said. "The medium- to long-term investment currently planned will proceed without any setbacks to create domestic jobs and to grow together with partners in the materials, parts and equipment fields."

SK also announced that from 2022 to 2023 it will invest a total of 73 trillion won in facility investments, such as expanding existing domestic factories or starting new construction, and has plans to invest 25 trillion won in R&D by 2027.

Its domestic investment and R&D arms aim to enhance the infrastructure and technological competitiveness of the batteries, bio and chips industries, which are key growth engines.

The 67 trillion won investments going to non-metropolitan investment areas will be focused on the core growth engines of SK Group, such as semiconductors and materials receiving 30.5 trillion won, green industry 22.6 trillion won, digital 11.2 trillion won and bio and others 2.8 trillion won.

SK Siltron including SK hynix, SK Materials, and SK E&S are overseeing the non-metropolitan investments.

SK hynix has decided to invest 15 trillion won in a new M15X semiconductor production plant to be built in Cheongju, North Chungcheong Province, over the next five years.

To expand the SiC wafer manufacturing process, SK Siltron recently invested 190 billion won to expand wafering and EPI growing production facilities at its second factory in Gumi, North Gyeongsang Province.

In addition, SK Siltron will invest 1 trillion won in Gumi by 2025 to expand its wafer production plant there.

As the semiconductor market grows due to increased investment in data centers, electric vehicles and 5G, SK has decided to increase production facilities for a stable supply of wafers.

SK Materials will invest 1 trillion won in non-metropolitan areas by next year through its affiliated business subsidiaries to build and expand industrial gas and silicon anode battery material production plants.

SK Telecom and SK Broadband will invest about 5 trillion won from this year to next year to expand wired and wireless communication networks such as 5G.

SK E&S will invest more than 1 trillion won nationwide by next year to build renewable energy facilities such as solar and wind power and city gas facilities.

SK Group aims to hire more than 13,000 people this year, the most ever in its history, to secure the workforce needed to drive its battery, bio and chip units.