Gov’t to create ecosystem for digital economy
Finance Minister Hong Nam-ki has vowed to revitalize the economy by creating a digital market where startups and big companies freely use big data and artificial intelligence technologies.
His pledge came as he extended President Moon Jae-in’s request to the heads of local business-interest groups for close cooperation in carrying out this year’s key projects and initiatives for job creation.
Hong met Korea Employers Federation Chairman Sohn Kyung-shik, Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry Chairman Park Yong-maan, Korea Federation of SMEs Chairman Park Seong-taek and Korea International Trade Association Chairman Kim Young-ju in Seoul, Wednesday.
“The government’s main focus is revitalizing the economy by closely listening to the market and devising policies reflecting its concerns,” he told the four chiefs.
This came a day after Moon met owners and CEOs of conglomerates, asking them to invest and create more jobs as the government promised to pursue regulatory reforms.
Hong reported to Moon that there will be two mega-projects worth nearly 4 trillion won in total ($3.5 billion) planned in the private sector in the first half of this year.
He followed this up with the business-interest groups and startups with plans to back the development of ecosystems surrounding hydrogen, data analysis and artificial intelligence.
The finance minister said at an economy-related meeting Wednesday morning that the government will seek to foster 10,000 professionals or developers in artificial intelligence.
This is part of efforts to develop a digital economy, enabling entrepreneurs to create and provide services through their open-source platforms.
Toward that end, the government wants to create a 30 trillion won digital market, where startups and big companies can further grow using big data and artificial intelligence technologies by 2023.
“We will focus on investing in these areas,” Hong said, adding the government will soon create a business cluster, or a hub, for artificial intelligence and big data.
The government also will come up with a measure supporting the ecosystem of hydrogen vehicles and power supplies.
This is in line with its goal to have 80,000 hydrogen cars on the road by 2022, up from fewer than 2,000 in 2018, to catch up with countries such as China, Japan and Germany that are beefing up their hydrogen-powered transportation ecosystems.
“The country seeks to reach the top in hydrogen and fuel cells,” Hong said.
As for the market’s conventional manufacturers, such as automobiles, displays, shipbuilding and petrochemicals, he said the government will have a separate measure ready by February to help revamp them, aligned with creating a digital economy.
“We will also aggressively support services such as tourism, healthcare, gaming and logistics,” Hong said.
Analysts say the government’s signal to work with the private sector for job creation is positive. But it would take some time for the market to fully absorb the policy change.
“Its latest market signal is positive. But it will take some time to overcome the doubt and uncertainty over its economic policy,” said Sung Tae-yoon, an economist at Yonsei University.