Four Korean hi-tech companies have signed an ambitious partnership to jointly develop genome sequencing machines to replace foreign ones that have long dominated the domestic market.

Eone Diagnomics Genome Center (EDGC), Hims, Solgent and Oneomics inked the deal at Hims' headquarters in Incheon, Feb. 3.

The partnership comes at a time when Korea, while having global competitiveness with state-of-the-art technologies such as LG's organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) and Samsung's semiconductors, does not have locally developed genetic tools that rely on those very technologies.

"Illumina of the United States and China's BGI dominate the market, not just in Korea but also the world," EDGC said. Over 74 percent of the world's next-generation sequencing machines and chemical reagents markets, together worth $12 billion, has been claimed by Illumina. The rising global market pie grew from $4 billion in 2015.

Germany's Siemens, America's Abbott and Switzerland's Roche have also exported their products to Korea.

"This will be the first opportunity to let the world know about Korea's superb genome sequencing and medical devices that have been proven in the country's industrial engineering sector," EDGC's co-CEO Shin Sang-cheol said.

Kim Joo-hwan, CEO of Hims, a producer of semiconductors and displays for OLED, said Korea hasn't ventured into genetic engineering enough to invest in its own research and development tools yet, and hoped this partnership will lead to the next step.

Rep. Kim Jin-pyo of the governing Democratic Party of Korea, who chairs the National Assembly National Economic Advisory Council, attended the signing event to give the initiative his "full support."

Genome sequencing is considered one of the core technologies to compete in the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Its application ranges from big data-based artificial intelligence to the development of new medicines and disease treatments.

EDGC has led the world with genome sequencing-based liquid biopsy technologies to predictively diagnose cancer along with GRAIL, a subsidiary of Illumina.