The government will pursue 'regional-led growth' by focusing on nurturing local industries and tourism based on artificial intelligence (AI). It plans to divide the country into five metropolitan areas, integrating AI into regionally specialized industries, and to expand the size of the special account for balanced regional development to over 10 trillion won.
On the 22nd, the Ministry of Economy and Finance announced the 'new government's economic growth strategy.' Deputy Minister Yun In-dae noted, 'We will completely overhaul the regional preferential policy system to overcome the concentration in the metropolitan area and move toward balanced growth with five poles and three special regions.'
The government will prioritize selecting super-wide growth engines centered on 30 leading projects and provide concentrated support. The transition of the relevant industries to AI will focus on supporting packages of fiscal measures, tax systems, finance, workforce, regulations, and locations. It will significantly expand R&D budgets, exempt preliminary feasibility studies, and support investment through a national growth fund of 100 trillion won. Tax benefits will also be provided through the designation of national strategic technologies. However, it has not yet determined which regions will be connected to which industries.
The special account for balanced regional development will be increased from the current 3.8 trillion won to 10 trillion won next year. When promoting major fiscal projects, a preferential support system will be applied to non-metropolitan areas and regions experiencing population decline. The second phase of the transfer of public institutions will also commence to facilitate prompt relocation to local areas.
The local investment promotion subsidy will be raised to 15 billion won per relocation for corporations moving from the metropolitan area and 20 billion won per corporation. The venture fund for the local era will be reorganized as a regional growth fund, and the special measures for recognizing local investments will be extended until 2030. Corporations relocating their headquarters or factories to regions experiencing population decline will receive a 50% to 100% corporate and income tax reduction for 8 to 15 years.
The expansion of local income bases will also be pursued. By the second half of this year, standard models for benefit-sharing resident participation such as the Sunlight Pension and Wind Pension will be developed, and basic income for rural areas will be gradually expanded. Support for issuing local love gift certificates will also be increased to promote stable operation.
Additionally, the operation system of the fund for responding to local extinction will be reorganized to promote projects improving living and retention conditions, and the '10 Seoul National Universities' initiative will enhance regional research competitiveness. Investment in essential public health services for regions will also be increased, and efforts will be made to amend medical laws for the institutionalization of non-face-to-face medical treatment.
◇ Promote venture investment through pension funds… Encourage small and medium-sized enterprises and small business owners to utilize AI
The government will support the growth of small and venture corporations by utilizing the national growth fund, the mother fund, pension funds, and private investment. Retirement pension funds will be allowed to invest in ventures, providing investment guidelines for risk diversification, and a separate integrated fund will be established for pension fund investments to facilitate venture investments.
To expand individual investments, a public fund focused on investing in venture innovation companies called 'corporate growth collective investment vehicle' will be introduced, and the scope of tax credits for corporate venture investments will also be broadened.
Efforts will also be made to strengthen the competitiveness of small and medium-sized enterprises and small business owners. The government will expand the dissemination of AI-based smart factories to small manufacturing corporations and support the management, utilization, and verification of manufacturing data. Through a reorganization of the support system, incentives for growth into mid-sized companies will also be provided.
Small business owners will be supported with AI market analysis, management diagnosis, and provision of industry-specific data. Efforts will be made to create specialized food streets and simultaneously develop markets such as ▲ glocal markets ▲ regional representative markets ▲ alley markets by scale. The eligibility for debt refinancing will be expanded, and household loan limits will be increased from 10 million won to 50 million won. Exceptional measures will also apply, allowing policy funds to be repaid in a long-term installment over seven years or reducing interest rates by 1 percentage point.
The mutual aid system for small business owners will also be strengthened. To this end, the income tax deduction limit for the yellow umbrella mutual aid will be raised from 3 million won per quarter to 18 million won annually. Measures to alleviate penalties for premature termination of kiosks and table orders, as well as the rationalization of payment fees for unmanned ordering devices, will also be prepared.