According to Yonhap News,

(SEJONG = Yonhap News) The Korean government will support research and development (R&D) activities and market expansion to help the nation grow into one of the world’s top seven medical equipment powerhouses by 2020, according to Hyun Oh-seok, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Strategy and Finance, on March 19.

Hyun held the economic ministers meeting at the Government Complex Sejong on Wednesday and announced the government’s medium-and long-term development plan for the medical equipment industry.

The plan will focus on supporting the R&D fields that are dominated by Korea and highly influential to society, such as the development of the mobile diagnostic device for severe diseases and handheld cerebral hemorrhage visual detector.

Hyun emphasized that the government will enable the commercialization of R&D outcomes by encouraging hospitals, the end consumers of medical equipment, to take part in the entire R&D process.

The government also seeks to streamline its licensing and evaluation procedures for medical equipment to shorten the amount of time it takes to enter the market and prohibit unfair trading practices such as kickback payments between medical institutions and vendors.

It was decided at the meeting that overseas expansion would be supported through supporting the expenses of clinical trials conducted abroad, providing advice on overseas certification processes and more.

The government plans on enlarging the number of graduate schools that specialize in medical equipment to foster a skilled workforce for the industry.

pan@yna.co.kr

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