Careful approach needed for R&D budget

The government will be shaving its budget for state-backed research and development next year. According to the Ministry of Science and ICT’s outline for the state-backed R&D project budget for 2024, the budget for key R&D projects was set at 21.5 trillion won ($16 billion) for 2024, down 13.9 percent from this year. This is the first time for the government to cut back on R&D spending since 2016.

In a briefing Tuesday, Lee Jong-ho, minister of science and ICT, said that stretching the budget is easy but changing the system is difficult, adding that complacency and vested power expanded in line with the budgetary increase. He argued that the downward adjustment of the budget is meant to clean up outdated practices and inefficiencies. Korea so far has kept the top rank in R&D spending per GDP, with the annual amount being the world’s fifth largest.

The Science Ministry should have set the R&D budget for next year by the end of June for submission to the Ministry of Finance and Economy. But the move was stopped after President Yoon Suk Yeol suddenly raised the R&D cartel issue in the science community during a meeting on fiscal policy. The president criticized easy R&D giveaways and stressed the need for increased international cooperation. Yoon is not entirely wrong. Government spending, whether for R&D or not, should be efficient and must go to where it is most needed.

But the ramifications of the president’s remarks on the science community have been huge. The basic research sector and state-invested research institutes must worry about shriveled budgets. Public research institutes cannot go on overseas business trips now that even this year’s budget has been affected.

The president’s comment on some abnormalities in the science sector has shaken up the community. International departments of state-subsidized research institutes must call around to overseas academies and researchers to ask for R&D collaborations after a sudden decrease in their budget. They were politely rejected, because projects for next year have already been set in those institutions.

It would have been better to frankly seek a public understanding citing the post-pandemic crunch in public finances. The Finance Ministry expects this year’s tax revenue to fall short by more than 44 trillion won. But cutting spending for R&D that can shape the country’s future is too short-sighted. A farmer won’t save seeds just because he is going through difficult times during the winter. Korea, sandwiched between the United States and China in their technology conflict, should be more prudent in its R&D approach. The government must be careful in policymaking so as not to dampen the innovative drive in the science and technology sector.