SEOUL, Jan. 8 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's LG Group, the country' s electronics-to-telecommunications conglomerate, is considering launching business operations in a new city the government aims toturn into a business and science hub, local media reported Friday.

    "We will thoroughly review long-term feasibility of launching operations of our units there, as soon as the government announces the development plan of the city," a high-ranking LG official was quoted as saying by Yonhap News Agency.

    LG's reported move follows local media report Thursday that other business giants including Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., SK Group and Hanhwa Group are also expected to invest in the city.

    The world's top memory chip maker Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. is hammering out details with the government on a possible launch of biopharmaceutical and light-emitting diode (LED) businesses there, while SK Group is considering launching renewable energy-related operations in the city and the chemicals-to-construction giant Hanhwa group is in talks with the government over building a research and development facility, according to local media.

    South Korean conglomerates' steps come as the government is moving to unveil its revised plan next Monday on how to transform the new city of Sejong into a business city, although the initial plan envisaged by the late President Roh Moo-hyun was to move nine ministries and four government agencies to South Chungcheong province, about 160km south of Seoul, in order to make a new administrative center and solve regional disparity.

    President Lee Myung-bak, who still remains tight-lipped about the alternative plan, recently offered to give tax benefits, cheap lands and government subsidies in return for scrapping the original plan, in a reversal of his previous key campaign pledge and an attempt to lure business interests.

    Foreign companies would be granted government subsidies or cash rewards, according to local media reports.