The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE) announced the work report for 2023 on December 27, outlining MOTIE’s four major tasks for 2023 as follows.
One, MOTIE will direct pan-ministerial efforts to achieve exports growth by injecting KRW 360 trillion in trade financing and training up 1,500 young trade specialists. Korea’s goal is to achieve over USD 680 billion in exports in 2023.
MOTIE will support Korea in entering the nuclear energy markets in the Czech Republic, Philippines and the UK and provide full assistance in winning defense and plant bid projects.
Two, MOTIE aims to vitalize Korea’s real economy and achieve dynamic growth. Ten business categories will be selected for 100 trillion won investment support. Mutual growth incentives, automatic licensing “timeout” system and public institutions’ prefeasibility study exemptions are three major administration processes to be introduced for efficiency.
As for foreign investment, Korea intends to attract over $30 billion in 2023, the bulk of it centering around high-tech industries.
Industrial R&D investment will amount to 5.6 trillion won to fund eleven major industrial super gap R&D projects and carbon reduction schemes to ultimately expand private sector R&D investment. Bioeconomy 2.0, Energy Renaissance and industrial transformation are Korea’s future growth engine projects.
Three, energy security and system innovation. Approximately 3.5 trillion won worth of nuclear power plant projects, including Shin-hanul 3 and 4, will be launched beginning 2023 for complete restoration of Korea’s nuclear energy ecosystem.
Moreover, MOTIE will kickstart the development of innovative small modular reactor (SMR) models, investing a total of 400 billion won by 2028. Introduction of innovative measures will be considered for the power market, such as real-time transaction and price bidding system.
Four, practice of preemptive trade with priority on national interest. MOTIE will strategically consider Fab 4 and other preemptive, multifaceted response measures concerning the U.S.’ Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and EU’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM).
MOTIE also plans to enter FTAs with countries in Latin America and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), and build a supply chain cooperation network with resource-rich nations.
Lastly, MOTIE will initiate official development assistance (ODA) that supports climate change response efforts of developing countries.
Source: Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy