Regional growth engines to be mapped out by year-end with 7-part support package

500 AI factories targeted by 2030

Resource security fund to diversify oil and gas supply sources

Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy Kim Jung-kwan [Yonhap]
Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy Kim Jung-kwan [Yonhap]

Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy Kim Jung-kwan said Tuesday that South Korea would pursue its jointly announced US investment projects with national interest as the top priority, using them as a springboard to expand Korean companies' presence in the American market and beyond.

Kim made the remarks in an opening address at a National Assembly national audit session of the Trade, Industry, Energy, SMEs and Startups Committee.

Assessing the current state of the economy, Kim said key indicators such as exports and investment were improving, led by the semiconductor sector, but that the gains had yet to translate into tangible benefits for ordinary people and regional communities. He added that external uncertainties were also mounting, citing intensifying global competition for AI dominance and geopolitical instability in supply chains.

Kim said the ministry had been advancing a 1,600 trillion won ($1.18 trillion) anchor-company regional investment plan that includes three mega-projects, along with a manufacturing AI transformation initiative known as M.AX and restructuring efforts in key industries such as petrochemicals and steel. He said the ministry had also responded to the energy crisis stemming from the Middle East, activated export support systems, and addressed trade issues including EU steel measures and US-bound investment.

On the policy outlook, Kim said the ministry would work to accelerate locally driven growth, speed up manufacturing transformation through AI, strengthen industrial and resource security, and do its utmost to cement South Korea's standing among the world's top five export nations.

On locally driven growth, Kim said the ministry would support regional governments in drawing up growth engine development plans for each zone by year-end, laying the groundwork for swift execution of corporate investment.

He said the ministry would pursue sweeping deregulation through the enactment of a cross-regional special zone law, backed by cross-ministry cooperation, and would actively support corporate investment in the regions through a seven-part package covering fiscal, financial and tax measures. Kim added that the ministry would closely monitor the progress of mega-projects to keep them on track and move quickly to remove obstacles to corporate investment.

The ministry will also accelerate the AI transformation of manufacturing. Kim said AI transformation was "no longer a technology of the future but a technology in progress that will determine the survival of future manufacturing," adding that the ministry aimed to build 500 AI factories by 2030 and would push from next year to develop and demonstrate the technologies needed to realize fully AI-operated, full-stack AI factories.

He also said the ministry would develop manufacturing AI solutions that digitize tacit knowledge from factory floors and would begin building a manufacturing data library from next year so that high-quality production data could be used as a core national asset.

Kim said the ministry would pursue growth across the broader industrial ecosystem through a project designed to help anchor companies and the government jointly strengthen the capabilities of their suppliers, ensuring that AI-driven innovation at anchor firms ripples through the wider ecosystem. He added that the ministry would reinforce the corporate growth ladder to help small and medium-sized enterprises scale up into mid-sized and large companies, and would expand industrial complexes made more attractive to young workers.

On industrial and resource security, Kim said the ministry aimed to diversify oil and gas import sources and secure stable stockpiling capacity, with a goal of reducing dependence on any single region by 2035. He said the share of non-Middle Eastern crude oil would be raised to 50 percent, while reliance on any single country for gas would be brought below 30 percent.

He added that the ministry would review restoring the Korea Mine Rehabilitation and Mineral Resources Corporation's overseas investment function to strengthen critical mineral supply chains, and would establish a resource security fund to provide stable, long-term financing for the resource security sector.

Kim said the ministry would actively support research and development, infrastructure building and workforce training centered on specialized complexes for materials, parts and equipment to strengthen the domestic ecosystem for key components, while also taking proactive steps to protect core technologies against leakage and guard against risks across the supply chain.

To break into the ranks of the world's top five export nations, Kim said the ministry would diversify export items, markets and players — nurturing strategic products such as K-consumer goods and nuclear power plants, building the export capacity of small and medium-sized enterprises, and opening up emerging markets in the Middle East and Latin America to create an export ecosystem in which all participants can grow.

Kim said the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy was a ministry that works in step with industry, adding that it would take the voices of industry as its policy starting point, deliver swift support where companies need it, and seek new solutions to problems that cannot be resolved through conventional means.


y2k@heraldcorp.com