KOREAN NET

A new government fund for cutting-edge strategic industries is worth KRW 34 trillion. Shown is Samsung SDI's booth for mobility batteries in October 2024 at the Daegu International Future Auto & Mobility Expo held at EXCO (Daegu Exhibition and Convention Center) in Daegu's Buk-gu District. (Samsung SDI)

By Park Hye Ri

A new government fund for cutting-edge strategic industries worth KRW 34 trillion seeks to support such sectors including batteries and bio.

Acting President Choi Sang-mok, who is also deputy prime minister and minister of economy and finance, on Feb. 5 said this in his opening speech at a meeting of ministers related to governance, economy and improvement of industrial competitiveness at Government Complex-Seoul.

"Major variables for the Korean economy continue to appear like the new U.S. administration's tariff policy and the launch of DeepSeek by Chinese companies," he said. "The Korea Development Bank will set up a fund for cutting-edge strategic sectors to back high-tech industries and technologies such as batteries and bio."

"We plan to pursue diverse methods of support such as low-interest loans and equity investments," he added. "We will swiftly devise a specific plan to launch the fund and discuss related legal revisions in March with the National Assembly."

Acting President Choi also pledged to focus on securing artificial intelligence (AI) competitiveness. "We will hold a meeting of the Presidential Committee on AI as soon as possible this month on detailed strategies to make Korea one of the world's top three AI powers," he added.

In addition, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism announced plans to launch a Korean content fund worth about KRW 600 billion to stimulate content investment. It will inject about KRW 340 billion into this fund and form a venture investment association with KRW 520 billion to go in the fund's culture account and KRW 79.6 billion in the film account.

Using the fund's cultural account, the ministry will set up additional funds for intellectual property, new technology, exports, content development and general culture. It will also form the financial basis for the overseas advance of domestic content companies.

A new animation fund worth KRW 20 billion is under the film account. The ministry pledged investment in small and medium venture companies and projects in animation, but with a required investment ratio for the production of animated feature films to support growth of related sectors.

"Given the difficulties plaguing the domestic investment market, we're striving to have policy financing stimulate the content market," said Yune Yang Su, director of the ministry's Content Policy Bureau. "The ministry plans to use its K-Content Fund to ease the funding difficulties of content companies and help them secure competitiveness."

hrhr@korea.kr