On Dec 21, the Ministry of Knowledge Economy (MKE), the Korea Telecommunications Commission (KCC), and the Small & Medium Business Administration (SMBA) jointly held an annual policy report session at Cheong Wa Dae, in order to brief President Lee and other government officials on their plans for year 2010.
To attain an economic growth rate of five percent next year, the Ministry of Knowledge Economy plans to achieve US$410 billion in exports and a trade balance of US$20 billion, and to push ahead with new growth engine projects at an earlier date, continuously propping up the competitiveness of existing industries. In the semiconductor sector, the development of non-volatile memories (NVM) will be carried out in close collaboration between industry and academia. A comprehensive plan will be hammered out in the first quarter of next year to make the issue of systems-on-chip (SoCs) as one of the national policy priorities. Systems-on-chip have been pointed out as one of S. Korea's weaknesses. The ministry also aims to diversify export portfolios of South Korea by vigorously promoting overseas market entry by promising Korean industries such as nuclear power, aviation, defense, and plants. In particular, South Korea's nuclear power technology is scheduled to fully wean itself from dependence on foreign technology by year 2012, three years earlier than the original target year of 2015, to stay more competitive in export markets.
As for the new growth engine sector, facility investments in biosimilars projects, which received 30.2 billion won this year, will jump 17 percent to 565.4 billion won next year. The Ministry also predicts that localization ratios would be enhanced from 10% to 30% for LED core equipment and from 20 percent to 45 percent for ground wave DMB (Digital Multimedia Broadcasting). In addition, in a bid to encourage green growth, the Ministry plans to come up with a master plan for greenhouse gas reductions by 2020, which details sectoral CO2 reduction targets and timetables.
On the other hand, the Korea Telecommunications Commission (KCC) is set to announce specific notices on conditions, procedures, methods, and costs of becoming mobile virtual network operators (MVNO) by October next year, so as to facilitate participation by small- and mid-sized operators. In October next year, full HD ground wave 3D TV broadcasting will be tried out on a pilot basis.
The Small & Medium Business Administration is determined to execute 18,200 billion won in start-up support funds in order to create 10,000 start-ups in manufacturing 180,000 in services. In particular, to actively promote the establishment of technology start-ups, the administration is poised to encourage professors, researchers and college students to start a business. They will revamp systems to make it easier for executives of larger companies to start their own business.
