[Asia Economy Reporter Junho Hwang] Among the 35.1 trillion KRW third supplementary budget passed by the National Assembly on the 3rd, a total of 60.1 billion KRW was allocated for K-quarantine and private R&D support. 39.7 billion KRW was secured to develop treatments and vaccines for COVID-19 and to establish a Korean-style quarantine package. To revitalize private R&D, which has been pushed into crisis due to the economic downturn caused by COVID-19, 20.4 billion KRW was obtained. In addition, the Ministry of Science and ICT announced on the 4th that it will utilize a total supplementary budget of 874 billion KRW to promote the digital new deal, including non-face-to-face services and industrial digital transformation.
39.7 billion KRW for K-quarantine including treatment and vaccine development
Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun is giving an opening remark at the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasure Headquarters meeting for COVID-19 response held at the Government Seoul Office in Jongno-gu, Seoul on the 1st. Photo by Hyunmin Kim kimhyun81@
The government will invest 17.5 billion KRW to elevate K-quarantine, which has gained global recognition due to COVID-19, by supporting the development of treatments and vaccines. Of this, 5 billion KRW will be spent directly on treatment and vaccine development support, 8.5 billion KRW on model animal experiments for treatment candidate substances, and 4 billion KRW on toxicity evaluation of candidate substances.
222 billion KRW will be used for the development of a Korean-style quarantine package. Through the platform of the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), the government will consolidate dispersed technological capabilities and develop infectious disease response solutions together with companies. This budget also includes support funds for infection protection (breathable protective suits), diagnosis (ultra-fast PCR), infectious disease hospital services (negative pressure wards), and recovery.
The 20.4 billion KRW allocated for private R&D support will be used to maintain R&D activities of corporate research institutes (400 institutes) struggling due to COVID-19 and to support projects aimed at retaining key research personnel.
Ministry of Science and ICT, early budget execution
The government also secured additional budget to collect and utilize scientific and technological data. This includes 26.4 billion KRW for building bio data infrastructure and training data engineers, 8 billion KRW for establishing a materials research data platform and training personnel, 6.4 billion KRW for building a laboratory-handled substance information database and advancing laboratory safety systems, and 29.6 billion KRW for constructing scientific and technological machine learning data.
The Ministry of Science and ICT stated that the supplementary budget will be executed swiftly to achieve early results by simplifying procedures for each project, and that R&D projects such as COVID-19 vaccine and treatment development will minimize the time required to start research by designating executing institutions or shortening the public offering period.
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