Support for new innovative industries to be expanded

Korea will expand financial support to innovative sectors, the Finance Ministry said Tuesday, in the latest move to foster new industries that could become new growth engines for Asia’s fourth-largest economy.

The government set aside 53 trillion won ($44.5 billion) for financial support to the innovative sectors through policy lenders such as the Korea Development Bank and the Export-Import Bank of Korea, according to the Ministry of Economy and Finance. The figure represents a 5.6-trillion-won increase from 2018.

Korea has been seeking to boost the hydrogen economy and other innovative sectors as new growth engines amid slowing exports and investment.

Other segments that the government is focusing on include big data, artificial intelligence (AI), fifth-generation (5G) network services, smart factories and bio-health.

Korea’s vice finance minister, Lee Ho-seung, said in a meeting with relevant officials in Seoul that the financial support is a pump-priming measure for innovative growth.

The government also said policy lenders will be exempted from responsibility for losses incurred in their financial support to new industries.

Yonhap