Samsung Electronics Co. said Wednesday it paid out more than 77.7 billion won ($70 million) in incentives to its semiconductor partner companies last year as the South Korean tech giant tries to build up a healthy ecosystem for the local chip industry.

The world's largest memory chipmaker said it gave incentives worth 41.19 billion won to some 23,000 workers at its 289 chip business partners in the second half of 2020.

Including its first half incentives worth 36.53 billion won, the company's total incentive payments to partner firms stood at 77.72 billion won in 2020.

Since 2010, Samsung Electronics has been running an incentive program for its chip partner firms to promote shared growth in the industry. It rewards firms that achieve productivity and safety goals twice a year.

The company has so far paid a total of 425.4 billion won since the program's initiation in 2010.

Meanwhile, Samsung Group said its 11 affiliates, including Samsung Electronics and Samsung SDI Co., decided to give payments for purchase orders to suppliers in advance so that they can better support their employees ahead of the Lunar New Year's holiday amid the pandemic.

A total of 1.3 trillion won will be provided to Samsung's partners in advance, with some getting early payments two weeks ahead of the usual schedule. (Yonhap)