The government decided to launch Korea Strategic Tech Partners (KSTP) as a specialized manager focused on ultra-long-term, large-scale investment in future strategic technologies. The aim is to build a systematic foundation for strategic technology investment and to pool public-private investment capacity to foster core technologies as national strategic assets.
The Financial Services Commission said at a joint policy briefing on the 15th under the theme "An irreplaceable Korea through a great economic leap" that "securing technology sovereignty and the capacity to inject capital determine the fate of the nation and corporations, but our systematic foundation for strategic technology investment is insufficient in both the public and private sectors," adding, "Over the next five years, we plan to supply up to 10 trillion won to foster future strategic technologies."
Authorities plan to broadly link policy finance such as the Public Growth Fund with research and development (R&D) by relevant ministries, technology-demand corporations, and domestic and overseas financial institutions and other private LPs to raise capital.
Investment targets include frontier source-technology fields that carry high failure risk and require large amounts of early-stage funding but could be game changers if successful, such as quantum supercomputing, ultra-reliable communications networks, post-NANO AI Semiconductor chips, autonomous materials design and experimentation platforms, bio digital twins, and induced pluripotent stem cells.
Authorities also plan to promote national strategic asset development by supporting active R&D finance and commercialization investment for key technologies in leading industries that rely on overseas sources, such as defense RF semiconductors (United States), extra-large offshore wind turbines (Denmark), rare-earth magnets and refining technologies (China), LNG cold-energy power generation (Germany), and AI process digital twins (United States).
The manager will be jointly established by the Korea Development Bank and Korea Growth Investment Corporation at its core, along with private financial firms such as the five major financial holding companies, while the government will prepare support measures such as incentives for participating institutions. The goal is to apply for a license and establish a corporation this year, then launch the first project in the first half of next year.
The Financial Services Commission (FSC) also announced it would newly launch an ultra-long-term technology investment fund worth 880 billion won within the Public Growth Fund. The aim is to support research and development and technology commercialization of promising technologies that need long-term patient capital within the Public Growth Fund.
The government will hold a public hearing for feedback on the 20th with the Financial Services Commission (FSC) chair attending, begin recruiting managers from early Aug., and raise private capital by year-end to start investing.