The South Korean government is launching a system to nurture national strategic technologies, aiming to secure world-leading technologies by 2030 and preempt world-first technologies by 2040. It will reorganize national strategic technologies around 10 key fields and apply measures such as priority review for R&D budget allocation and funding, along with eased corporate matching ratios.
The Ministry of Science and ICT (MSIT) and the Ministry of Planning and Budget held the "National Strategic Technology Leadership NEXT Project Launch Event" at the Lotte Hotel in Jung-gu, Seoul, on Wednesday, where they announced this direction. The event drew about 100 attendees, including Deputy Prime Minister and Science Minister Bae Kyung-hoon, Planning and Budget Minister Park Hong-keun, representatives of major companies, universities and research institutions, and ministers and vice ministers from relevant agencies.
The project aims to combine core programs and policies in each national strategic technology field to achieve world-leading and world-first results. Moving away from the practice of simply listing R&D programs by ministry, the government intends to bind budget, finance, investment, procurement and private-sector demand into a single strategic technology ecosystem. This year, the government has overhauled the management system covering 513 technologies under four laws related to strategic technologies, and has decided to concentrate support on technologies included in all the laws. The government is investing 8.6 trillion won in national strategic technology R&D this year.
Reflecting changes in the global technology environment, MSIT reorganized national strategic technologies into three core missions and 55 technologies across 10 fields. The three missions are leading the AI transformation, securing leadership in trade and security, and laying the foundation for future innovation. In particular, next year, the government plans to designate new missions by field, such as developing AI for autonomous decision-making at industrial sites in the AI field.
From the second half of this year, the government will operate the "NEXT Alliance," in which government agencies cooperate with the private sector, to formulate development directions and response strategies. The aim is to generate results quickly through this. "This is a time when organic cooperation between the government and industry, academia and research institutions is more urgently needed than ever," Bae said. "Through the NEXT Alliance, the government will support the connection of industry-academia-research capabilities, R&D programs, and finance, investment and policy support, and will continuously move forward to secure first and best technologies through the project."
"National strategic technology competitiveness cannot be secured through government investment alone, and results can only be created when corporate investment and the research capabilities of universities, research institutions and academia come together," Park said. "We will establish a stable investment foundation for national strategic technology fields and continue to create conditions that allow challenges to future technologies."
