Big spending plan unveiled to foster new growth engines

The Korean government unveiled a big spending plan Tuesday (May 26) to foster the country's new growth engines that can fuel the economy in the future.The government said that it plans to spend 24.5 trillion won (US$19.4 billion) over the next five years to develop 17 sectors belonging to three key new growth engines including green technology, high-tech convergence and value-added services that can fuel the country's long-term economic growth, creating new business and job opportunities. In detail, the sectors to get governmental support include advanced fuel cells, clean transportation, convergence, robotics, biotech, nuclear energy and advanced information technology (IT).In addition, money will also be poured into fields that are yet not competitive on the global market, such as healthcare and software, because the government says it views that such sectors can easily catch up with those in other advanced industrialized countries, and thus have high potential to eventually lead future markets. To effectively execute the spending plan, the government and business community intend to share R&D information and detailed plans.The spending plan is expected to create 700,000 new jobs and establish 300 small and medium enterprises by 2013.

By Han Aran

Korea.net Staff Writer

[source] www.korea.net [read the original article]