Invest KOREA

According to Yonhap News,

(SEOUL=Yonhap News) South Korea said Monday it will spend 7.8 trillion won (US$6.47 billion) over the next five years to nurture its materials, parts and equipment sectors and trim its dependence on Japanese imports in the latest move to cope with the neighbor's economic retaliation.

The move to boost R&D for the sector came after Japan decided last week to remove South Korea from a list of countries subject to preferential trade status in apparent anger against last year's South Korean Supreme Court rulings ordering Japanese firms to compensate South Korean victims of forced labor.

The massive spending is also aimed at promoting R&D activities for 100 key strategic items, according to the industry ministry.

"We will upgrade the competitiveness of the materials, parts and equipment industries," Hong Nam-ki, minister of economy and finance, said in a meeting with officials in Seoul.

In July, Japan also imposed tighter regulations on exports to South Korea of three materials -- resist, etching gas and fluorinated polyimide -- that are critical for the production of semiconductors and flexible displays.

Japan's export curbs have prompted South Korea to diversify supplies of key industrial materials and boost their localizations to reduce heavy reliance on Japan. South Korean companies have also been scrambling to find alternative suppliers of key items.

South Korea said Monday it will spend 7.8 trillion won (US$6.47 billion) over the next five years to nurture its materials, parts and equipment sectors and trim its dependence on Japanese imports in the latest move to cope with the neighbor's economic retaliation.

The move to boost R&D for the sector came after Japan decided last week to remove South Korea from a list of countries subject to preferential trade status in apparent anger against last year's South Korean Supreme Court rulings ordering Japanese firms to compensate South Korean victims of forced labor.

The massive spending is also aimed at promoting R&D activities for 100 key strategic items, according to the industry ministry.

"We will upgrade the competitiveness of the materials, parts and equipment industries," Hong Nam-ki, minister of economy and finance, said in a meeting with officials in Seoul.

In July, Japan also imposed tighter regulations on exports to South Korea of three materials -- resist, etching gas and fluorinated polyimide -- that are critical for the production of semiconductors and flexible displays.

Japan's export curbs have prompted South Korea to diversify supplies of key industrial materials and boost their localizations to reduce heavy reliance on Japan. South Korean companies have also been scrambling to find alternative suppliers of key items.



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Source: Yonhap News (August 5, 2019)