Smart Korea 2011 on Wednesday kicked off its four-day run to show off the nation’s IT progress over the past year.

The nation’s largest IT exhibition, marking its second year, will continue through Oct. 15 at KINTEX in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province.

The event is hosted by the Ministry of Knowledge Economy.

During the opening ceremony on Wednesday, 42 people who have contributed to the development of the nation’s IT industry were honored.

The Creative Future Forum was also held in the afternoon with pundits from Korea, Japan and China in attendance to discuss the role of Asia in the future of the smart revolution.

Other academic conferences in the coming days will project the outlook for the industry and discuss related policies in Asian countries.

The nation’s IT leaders also joined the event and shared their companies’ future plans.

Hynix CEO Kwon Oh-chul said the company aims to produce DRAM chips based on 20-nanometer technology from next year.

“It’s a little bit later than other local competitors but comes faster than we expected,” he told reporters.

“The production of 30-nano DRAM would make up 40 percent within the year and 60 percent in the first half of next year.”

Kwon Young-soo, chief executive of LG Display also showed confidence in vying with Samsung Electronics in the field of display panels.

Kwon, however, hinted at no investment plan for some time, saying, “All companies may agree that we have invested enough in the LCD business.”

By Lee Ji-yoon (jylee@heraldcorp.com)