Economy and Finance Minister Choo Kyung-ho holds an emergency economy-related ministers' meeting at the Government Complex in Sejong City, February 20. He unveiled a new growth strategy to strengthen the country's major industries and improve their technological competitiveness. [Yonhap]
On February 20, the ministry unveiled "New Growth Strategy 4.0" aimed at finding new economic engines. It plans to work out more than 30 detailed tasks to support the key industries.
The ministry said that it will begin to implement around 20 of the tasks in the first half of this year as part of efforts to get out of the present economic slump and raise the country's growth potential.
Besides, the government plans to develop a Korean version of ChatGPT, an artificial intelligence-base conversational bot that Microsoft-backed OpenAI unveiled last November.
Economy and Finance Minister Choo Kyung-ho has pledged to invest 69 trillion won ($53 billion) in the three major industries -- 47 trillion won in semiconductor-making, 14 trillion won in the display industry and 8 trillion won in the secondary battery sector.
He stressed the importance of large-scale, proactive investments in the future-oriented sectors to improve the technological competitiveness of major industries and reinvigorate the Korean economy.
For the development of the semiconductor sector, the ministry plans to invest in building a new industrial complex to help companies produce high-performance, high-capacity memory chips, while expanding foundry production capacity.
The government also plans to create a 200 billion won innovation fund to invest in companies making materials, parts and equipment for secondary batteries. It will include the display industry in the list of the nation's strategic technologies to make tax incentives available for display makers. In addition, it plans to launch urban air mobility (UAM) vehicle tests with six local consortiums to commercialize them in 2025.
reporter
Park Yoon-bae
ktybpark@ajunews.com
