The area that was given the highest priority was the realization of a creative economy, with the budget of 3,911.2 billion won, up 5.9 percent from 2013. In the area of support for startups and small- and medium-sized enterprises, the budget has increased 26.7 percent to 1,013.5 billion won. For support for one-person entrepreneurial firms, 15 billion won has been assigned, up 50 percent from 2013. For items such as technology development support for entrepreneurial firms and global marketing support for startups, the budgets have increased to 141.4 billion won and 21.8 billion won, respectively.

 

Park Hang-shik, coordinating manager at the Ministry of Science, ICT, and Future Planning, said, "It was unfortunate that the R&D budget couldn't be raised to a level commensurate with inflation. Instead, we will work to improve investment efficiency by saving as much as 602 billion won through elimination of overlapping programs."