An Il-hwan, Deputy Minister of Economy and Finance, "Technology gap with the US is 3.8 years... Need qualitative R&D achievements"

R&D Investment Efficiency Policy Meeting... 27.4 Trillion Won Budget Reflected This Year

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Moon Chaeseok] Ahn Il-hwan, the 2nd Vice Minister of the Ministry of Economy and Finance, said on the 28th, "Our country's technological level still shows a certain gap compared to major countries such as the United States and Japan."

On the same day, Vice Minister Ahn held an expert policy meeting at the Government Seoul Office to establish next year's budget and mid-term fiscal management plans, gathering expert opinions on R&D budget support measures.

He pointed out, "While there is a clear trend of quantitative increase in government research and development (R&D) investment, there is still a long way to go to achieve qualitative outcomes."

He continued, "Despite the challenging national fiscal conditions, following last year, we recorded a double-digit growth rate (13.1%) and reflected 27.4 trillion won, which is 4.9% of the total government budget, as the R&D budget."

He also stated, "We plan to concentrate about 70% of the main R&D budget on five major areas: the Korean New Deal, materials-parts-equipment, BIG3 (system semiconductors, future cars, bio-health), basic original R&D, and talent cultivation."

Vice Minister Ahn emphasized the need to make efforts to achieve qualitative results in R&D.

Although the R&D budget is increasing quantitatively, the technological gap between the United States, the country with the highest technology, and our country still amounts to 3.8 years.

To narrow the technology gap, Vice Minister Ahn said, "We need to examine whether the role-sharing with private investment is efficiently set, whether performance evaluations of past R&D investments and budget feedback based on evaluation results have been properly conducted."

He mentioned the need for organic linkage between ministries and projects in R&D projects involving multiple ministries.

He also said that improvements to the preliminary feasibility study system for R&D projects, whose total project costs have recently increased, should be reviewed.

Meanwhile, experts such as Lee Gil-woo, Head of the Project Coordination Division at the Korea Institute of Science and Technology Planning and Evaluation, Kim Ki-wan, Deputy Director of Management at the Korea Development Institute, and Jung Jang-hoon, Head of the R&D Fiscal Project Evaluation Center at the Science and Technology Policy Institute, attended the meeting.