South Korea crafts economic policies for SME-based innovation-driven growth

AGERPRES special correspondent Florin Barbuta reports: Decrease of economic growth is the most serious issue facing the South Korean government that has crafted a set of policies to address it, relying also on SMEs to bolster innovation-driven growth.

The most serious issue facing the South Korean government is the decline in economic growth. Another serious issue is the very low fertility rate. In the '70s there were 1 million babies born each year, but the figure slumped to 400,000 in 2016.(...) The key industries that have been the drivers of economic growth are beset by stagnation. Capital accumulation is almost the same as in the US or Germany. Therefore we created three policies, one of which is innovative growth, and science and technology innovation are at the forefront here, said Cho Hyun-Jin, senior official with the General Policy Coordination Division of South Korea's Ministry of Strategy and Finance.

The official said that Korea will be the world's first to deploy 5G technology and is thoroughly preparing for this move.

We are the first country in the world to commercially deploy 5G and for this we are building the entire necessary network, and at the same time we are trying to do several things as regards big data. We will focus on the financial society, agriculture, services and SMEs to drive innovation. To help start-ups we massively invest in venture capital. Since technology is the newest set of abilities people need, everybody must be educated. We are working to revise the education system and, at the same time, we need to render the labor market more flexible. One of the projects envisages the national big data system, ie we seek to create a smarter super-connection. We will financially support SMEs to create automated plants. Also, agriculture, fintech and renewable energy are the areas where we will invest more. We are also carrying out smart city projects and drone-related research and development, the official of the South Korean Finance Ministry told a meeting facilitated by the Korean Culture & Information Service and South Korea's Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism.

As regards the increase in fertility rates, he said that the government supports newlywed couples with the housing expenses and also provides child-rearing support to families with small children.

The South Korean government targets a 3 percent economic growth this year. AGERPRES (RO - editor: Nicoleta Gherasi; EN - author: Simona Klodnischi, editor: Simona Iacob)