South Korea will revamp its national research and development (R&D) support system for the first time in 20 years in a bid to improve the country’s competitiveness and better contribute to economic growth, a senior government official said Monday.

Knowledge Economy Minister Choi Kyung-hwan said under the new blueprint, that Seoul will transfer authority related to the selection of new R&D projects and direction of research to a new 15-person “strategic planning team” staffed primarily by private sector experts.

“In effect the new team headed by a CTO or chief technical officer and five managing directors from the private sector will effectively take over the R&D planning and selection process from bureaucrats,” Choi said.

He said the move aims to allow the country’s R&D efforts to meet future trends and responds more quickly to changes that can ensure South Korea’s sustainable growth.

“The four government officials, including the minister who will co-chair the team, will only offer general support and not be given voting rights on R&D selection that will set directions for new research endeavors,” he said.

He also said that compared to the current system, where there is almost no follow-up or accountability on progress made, the new system that could be fully set up by year’s end, will discontinue support for projects that have stalled so more money can be diverted to projects that show promise of success.

At present the government cuts off support to just 2.1 percent of projects, but this will be raised to 10 percent this year.

“The whole point of the change is to create a new ‘research and business development’ environment where money is spent on projects that have actual impact on industries, and support is given until a full scale prototype of a product is made and tested instead of ending with a patent or journal publication,” the policymaker said.

Choi said the team will be tasked with picking 10 vital technologies needed to ensure South Korea can maintain its business edge in the futures. A total of 3 trillion won (US$2.6 billion) will be set aside by the government and private sector for the future growth industries up till 2017.

The minister said compared to the past when only 0.8 percent of the state R&D was used in the planning stage to pick projects, the total will be raised to up to 5 percent in the long run, which is on par with advanced industrialized companies.

The ministry, meanwhile said that there is a need to concentrate on “big” projects since the country’s R&D system is more centered on sharing of resources than bringing about results which had been the case in the early 1980s. During this time South Korea laid the foundation for information technology, semiconductors, and display panel sectors that is at the heart of its global competitiveness.

The ministry, which controls a R&D budget of 4.4 trillion won, supports over 4,000 R&D projects on average a year, with each getting a little over 500 million won each.

It said because of such limitations that new change is needed especially with countries like China becoming more competitive in the global market.

South Korea’s state R&D funding has grown rapidly although the total number of South Korean products that have a leading global market share fell from 87 in 2000 to 53 in 2007. At the same time the number of global best-selling Chinese products soared to 1,128 from 698.

The total size of South Korea’s R&D funding from both the private and public sectors soared to 34.5 trillion won in 2008 from 13.8 trillion won in 2000.

The ministry, meanwhile, said that it plans to establish a reward system by June to acknowledge achievements by talented researchers who could be given life pensions and be honored in a “hall of fame” for researchers.

If the plan is successful, R&D leaders can help strengthen the country’s technological base and push gross domestic product up to $2 trillion by 2020, the ministry said. It also aims for per-capita income around $40,000 in the target year from just under $20,000 at present.

YonhapNewsAgency

Related posts:

1. Korea will Strive to Become Global Tech Leader South Korea will strive to become one of the top five global technology leaders by 2020 by maximizing its strengths...
2. Researchers Develop New Technology to Enhance LED Efficiency South Korean researchers have developed a technology that enhances the efficiency of light emitting diodes (LEDs) by more than 30...
3. Korea to Merge IT with Service Sector to Enhance Productivity The government said Friday it will support the merging of information technology (IT) and the service sector to double annual...