Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy

Trade, Industry and Energy Minister Dukgeun Ahn chaired the first Industrial Investment Strategy Meeting on February 7 with representatives of Korea’s 10 major manufacturing companies and economic groups to discuss investment plans and business support measures for 2024.

 

The top 10 manufacturing companies’ major facility investment plans for 2024 amount to KRW 110 trillion, up 10 percent from last year’s 100 trillion won. Amid persistent high interest rates and supply chain anxieties, the Korean government intends to provide strong support to companies for smooth investment facilitation. Top 20 key investment projects will be selected, to which Trade, Industry and Energy Ministry (MOTIE)’s director-level officials will be assigned to monitor the investment project situation on a monthly basis until issues are resolved.

 

The Government will also support the fostering of favorable investment conditions for firms through a number of measures. First, the Government will extend the deadline for investment tax credit regarding national strategic technologies and for temporary investment tax credits.

 

Second, for advanced industries, three major regulatory innovations will be pushed: easing of existing regulations through the National High-Tech Strategic Industry Committee; high-tech industry impact evaluation for preliminary assessment of new regulations; and the development of high-tech industry regulation indices for assessing the regulation level on an annual basis.

 

Third, local governments are to establish a win-win belt for sharing investment returns to prevent large-scale manufacturing facility investments from being delayed by local governments’ belated licensing.

 

Lastly, the Government will push three major projects for the making of investments in concert with the private sector’s investment plans: infrastructure investment for establishing the power and water infrastructure; supply chain self-reliance investment for supporting the development of domestic MPEs (materials, parts, equipment) in line with production facility investment; and preemptive securing of manpower investment for time-appropriate activation of production lines.

 

Attendees also discussed “New Industrial Policy 2.0”, which lays out the Government’s new policy directions. Over the last two years, the Government has pushed “New Industrial Policy 1.0” to construct the industrial innovation basis for the 20-plus law enactments for sector- and function-specific industrial strategies, advanced industries, digital transition and talent training, such as the initiation of the industrial transformation and strategy for nurturing Korea into a semiconductor powerhouse. Now the time has arrived for Korea to build on the past policy tasks and seek future industrial strategy directions through New Industrial Policy 2.0.

 

New Industrial Policy 2.0 is speed- and goal-oriented, designed to secure super gaps in advanced industries, achieve industrial transformation across core sectors and upgrade Korea’s export portfolio, while simultaneously setting the convergence of AI and industries as the nation’s future priority task and aiming to create industry policies for this AI era.

 

Minister Ahn stated that “investment is a core element for recovering economic vitality,” and asked that companies make bold investment commitments, as MOTIE will likewise be making across-the-board effort to stimulate corporate investment this year.