South Korea plans to inject more than 5 trillion
won (US$4.2 billion) into pushing its technology capabilities up to 96 percent of those of advanced industrialized countries, the government said Wednesday.
The Ministry of Knowledge Economy said the 10-year plan finalized at the National Science and Technology Council aims to revamp how the government supports research and development (R&D) in such areas as solar cells, wind power
generation, bio energy and fuel cells.
Renewable, clean energy generation is one of the fastest growing industries in the world with the global market standing at $162.0 billion in 2009. The local market reached 4.02 trillion won last year from just 139.4 billion won in 2004.
As of this year, Seoul has earmarked 423.5 billion won for renewable energy R&D support, up 19.5 percent from 354.4 billion won in 2009.
"In the past, state budgets were allocated to various ministries that have been cited for inefficiency and for supporting overlapping R&D projects," said Hwang Soo- sung, head of the ministry's renewable energy division. He said in the future, research work will become a inter-ministerial effort with centralized support,
coordination and oversight.
Coordination will also take place for so-called mega projects that could receive up
to 300 billion won in state funding. Up to 15 such mega projects are being proposed.
The ministry said that if all goes according to plan, the country's technology should reach the 96 percent level from the present 76.7 percent, while parity may be reached in commercially viable areas such as solar energy, wind power and fuel cells.
Currently the country's technology level stands at 86.6 percent in solar energy generation, 81.1 percent in wind power and 77.8 percent in fuel cells vis-a-vis technology leaders such as the United States, Japan and some European countries.