A matter of survival

United States President Barack Obama is signing an executive order today that allows federal funding for stem cell research. Last month, he signed an executive order that will increase the number of environmentally friendly automobiles to cut down on carbon emissions. This will help get electric cars introduced as soon as possible to get the country’s automobile industry back on track.

Amid the economic slowdown, corporations that have been representative of U.S. industry for over a century are failing to survive, and the United States is already asking corporations that have lost their competitiveness to close down.

At the same time, the government is working to create new development plans with the latest technologies, and it seems as though Obama’s policies are being put in place to do more than simply overcome the economic crisis.

They contain the beginnings of a sketch for what industry in the 21st century can become.

The administration’s first experiments involve the biotechnology industry, the use of alternative energy and stem cell research.

Though there are doubts as to whether the U.S. will succeed, it is more likely that when a country as powerful as the U.S. starts new projects, other countries will follow along in the end.

So, too, should Korea be on the alert for industry innovations.

We should step back from our fear of the current economic crisis and set our gaze farther into the horizon.

Last month, the National Bioethics Committee decided to revisit the issue of the use of human embryos in stem cell research, a necessity in the world we live in today. We need to support medical research and treatment, with the condition that bioethics and safety will be protected.

One way to do this would be for the Lee Myung-bak administration to put its Green New Deal project, which was introduced last August, into motion as soon as possible.

The government should also do as much as it can to increase funding for research into alternative sources of energy and stem cell research.

With the Obama administration’s new environmental projects set to stimulate the U.S. economy, other countries are soon to follow with other projects in the industrial marketplace.

We need to invest in environmental projects so that we, too, can be competitive. It’s not a choice. It’s a matter of survival.