The government will overhaul the national strategic technology management system, which had been run differently by each ministry, and manage together the 513 technologies that had been split up by focusing on 19 common technology fields. The aim is to reduce confusion on the ground and improve the efficiency of support by strengthening the link between technology development and protection policies.
The Ministry of Science and ICT said it prepared a plan to overhaul and strengthen collaboration in the cross-ministry technology management system and had it reviewed and approved at the 5th meeting of ministers related to science and technology held on the 11th.
The existing technology management system was introduced to nurture and protect technologies at the national level, but it has been criticized because, as it was run separately by laws and ministries, policy demanders such as corporations and researchers found it hard to see at a glance which technologies were eligible for support and which fields were subject to protection.
In response, the government will first move to overhaul the system by focusing on four laws related to strategic technologies that carry high policy importance and impact. The targets are 513 technologies included in the National Strategic Technology Promotion Act, the Act on Restriction on Special Cases Concerning Taxation, the National Advanced Strategic Industry Act, and the Industrial Technology Protection Act, and the scope of application will gradually expand.
Through review meetings, the government derived 19 common technology fields that encompass the targets for promotion and protection that had been managed separately by each law, and decided to operate related systems based on this going forward. Through this, it plans to move away from each ministry separately managing similar or overlapping technologies and build a more integrated system.
In particular, it also singled out the core areas commonly promoted and protected by the four laws to concentrate support there. The government will design a research and development (R&D) portfolio centered on these priority support areas and more tightly link tax preferences and industrial promotion policies.
The inter-ministry collaboration structure will also be strengthened. A standing consultative body with participating relevant ministries and working-level agencies will meet regularly to activate prior discussions and information sharing, and major shifts, such as adjusting technology fields or discovering new fields at the national level, will be discussed together at joint meetings of the meeting of ministers related to science and technology and the meeting of ministers related to strengthening industrial competitiveness.
Reviews for additions and removals will be regularized so the technology management system does not fall behind changes in the industrial environment. The plan is not merely to increase designated targets, but also to check whether there are technologies that need to be removed and whether consistency with other systems is sufficient.
The 12 national strategic technologies under the National Strategic Technology Promotion Act, which have been criticized for weak linkage, and the national strategic technology R&D tax credit target fields under the Act on Restriction on Special Cases Concerning Taxation will also see their linkage strengthened step by step through inter-ministry consultations.
The government will also reflect this technology management system in the second mid- to long-term national R&D investment strategy to strengthen the linkage of investment and policy, and it plans to link policy finance such as the Public Growth Fund and the Science and Technology Innovation Fund to the designated target fields.
Bae Kyung-hoon, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Ministry of Science and ICT, said, "In a situation where global technology competition is becoming increasingly fierce, national strategic technologies are an asset that the government and the private sector must nurture and protect together," adding, "We will continue to communicate with relevant ministries so that researchers and corporations can understand the system more clearly, receive the support they need properly, and at the same time faithfully fulfill their protection obligations."