President Joe Biden on Tuesday hailed progress in the U.S. effort to transform its 21st-century economy.
“This landmark announcement is clear evidence that the United States, Korea and their allies are back and winning the technology competition of the 21st century,” Biden said at a virtual White House meeting with top executives at SK Group from South Korea second largest conglomerate.
“America is the number one destination for advanced technologies,” he added, stressing that the investment is a signal of success for his broader policy of “collaborating with our allies.”
The announcement came just before the meeting, where Biden, who is recovering from a Covid infection, appeared on video while SK Chairman Chey Tae-won personally joined other leaders and senior White House officials.
The conglomerate said in a statement it plans to “increase its new investments in the United States by $22 billion in areas like semiconductors, green energy and life sciences, creating tens of thousands of new high-tech, high-paying American jobs.”
“This comes in addition to SK’s recently announced $7 billion investment to build two new gigafactories in Tennessee and Kentucky through a joint venture with Ford Motor Company,” the statement said.
According to a White House spokesman, SK Group’s growing commitment reflects its push to rebuild U.S.-based manufacturing and supply chains, which have been severely disrupted by the fallout from the global shutdown of the Covid-19 pandemic.
“Since the beginning of his tenure, President Biden has focused on an American industrial strategy to rebuild our infrastructure and supply chains here at home and to draw well-paying manufacturing jobs back to America,” the spokesman said.
“This SK Group announcement is also further proof of the success of the government’s efforts to create more resilient and secure supply chains and to surpass the rest of the world in the technologies of the future,” he added.
The Commerce Department says foreign investment hit nearly $334 billion in 2021, the highest since 2016. Manufacturing accounted for the largest share of any industry at $121 billion.
The Biden administration is urging Congress to quickly pass a proposed $52 billion subsidy package to boost domestic semiconductor makers and warns that reliance on foreign manufacturers poses a national security risk.
In a speech Monday to senior business and national security officials, as well as representatives from manufacturers and a labor union, Biden said the government’s support for domestic producers means the United States “will be able to stay in the game.”
“Congress needs to pass this legislation as soon as possible,” he said, citing both economic and national security, “the need” to ensure production of the tiny components needed for everything from smartphones to smartphones to cars and guns.
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