Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy

Deputy Trade Minister discusses bilateral economic & industrial cooperation with U.S. delegation

Deputy Minister for Trade Park Jong-won at the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE) of the Republic of Korea met the U.S. economic delegation led by the U.S.-Asia Institute (USAI) today and discussed measures for wider bilateral trade and deeper cooperation in bio and other advanced industries. Headed by USAI Vice Chair Tami Overby and composed of representatives of companies like Coupang, Organon, MPSC, and FedEx, the delegation visited Korea to bolster Korea-U.S. economic cooperation and create new business opportunities, expressing strong interest in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit 2025 to be hosted by Korea.  During the talks, Deputy Trade Minister Park took stock of U.S. firms’ business situation in Korea and articulated the Korean government’s commitment to strengthening bilateral economic cooperation. He highlighted the need for companies’ active cooperation for the two countries’ relations to advance towards a solid alliance of high-tech industries and supply chains. Meanwhile, the deputy trade chief remarked that Korea is giving full measure to host a successful APEC summit upon its resuming the APEC chairmanship in 20 years and asked for U.S. business leaders’ interest and support so that the summit can serve as a platform for cooperation across the Asia-Pacific region’s political, economic, social, and such diverse areas.   date2024-10-30

Korea’s retail industry grows 6.7% in September

The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE) announced today that Korea’s retail industry grew 6.7 percent year-on-year for the month of September 2024, with offline and online sales each shrinking 0.9 percent and expanding 15.7 percent, respectively. MOTIE's monthly retail sales figures are based on surveys of 23 major retailers. Thirteen of them are brick-and-mortar retailers: three department store chains, three hypermarket chains, three convenience store chains, and four super supermarket (SSMs) operators. The remaining 10 are online retailers. By offline retail channel, hypermarket sales dropped 6.5 percent overall as food products (down 9.1 percent) suffered, but the late heat wave drove sales of home appliances (up 17.9 percent). Department store sales rose 0.3 percent in spite of weak demand for food products (down 5.9 percent) and women’s suits (down 9.0 percent), as household goods (up 14.4 percent) and foreign designer labels (up 3.7 percent) advanced. Convenience store sales climbed 2.5 percent as the late heat wave fueled demand for processed food products (up 3.6 percent) like ice cream and functional beverages. Tobacco sales also increased 2.4 percent. SSM operators contracted 2.7 percent as all categories minus fresh food products (up 4.9 percent) declined. Online retail sales soared 15.7 percent as the late heat wave boosted sales of home appliances and electronics (up 18.1 percent), as well as service/other (up 52.9 percent) such as e-coupons, travel packages, and food deliveries. Demand for food products (up 14.7 percent), living furniture (up 10.3 percent), and cosmetics (up 11.4 percent) showed steady growth, whereas fashion/clothing (down 16.0 percent) and sports (down 11.4 percent) continued to slide.   date2024-10-29

Korea’s reshoring support policy starting to yield results

Having reshored from China in November 2022, the Korean automobile parts company Hwashin held the completion ceremony of its new plant today in Yeongcheon, North Gyeongsang Province. Hwashin is a middle-market manufacturer and supplier of chassis and body parts for major automakers like Hyundai Motor, Kia, and Volkswagen. With the KRW 40 billion investment subsidy from the Korean government and local authorities, the company was able to establish facilities in the Yeongcheon High Tech Park District to produce over 100,000 units worth of electric vehicle (EV) battery pack cases and lightweight chassis parts (e.g., front cross member) per year.  Hwashin has plans to produce battery pack cases and such future mobility parts at the new plant through an ₩80 billion fresh investment, which is anticipated to create 120 new hires and help stimulate the local economy and domestic investment. Moreover, Hwashin’s lightweight car parts manufacturing and strategic technologies on related materials, parts, and equipment (MPE) are expected to contribute to the Government’s supply chain stabilization policy. This May, the Korean government announced the Reshoring Company Support Strategy 2.0 policy to invigorate the reshoring of companies in advanced industries through the employment of stronger incentives and a broader recognition range of reshoring. Notably, the state funding cap was heightened for companies with national high-tech strategic technologies, allowing those reshoring to Korea’s capital region to receive up to KRW 20 billion (up ₩5 billion) and those reshoring to non-capital regions to receive up to ₩40 billion (up ₩10 billion).   date2024-10-29

Korea launches “K-FEZ DAY in Singapore”

The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE) held “K-FEZ DAY in Singapore” on October 29 in Marina Bay Sands, Singapore, to promote Korea’s free economic zones (K-FEZs). The event was attended by approximately 90 persons from Singaporean companies, venture capital firms, and financial institutions. A group composed of authorities from the Gyeonggi, Gwangyang Bay Area, Busan-Jinhae, Ulsan, and Incheon FEZs led the local K-FEZ promotion, taking advantage of their first opportunity to promote K-FEZs to Singaporean investors. A prominent investor through the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation (GIC) and Temasek, Singapore recently invested in Korean firms such as Kakao Entertainment and Celltrion. The Southeast Asian country’s accumulated investment in Korea amounts to USD 33 billion. Following an overview on K-FEZs, each of the K-FEZ Authorities presented their respective economic zone’s local strengths and held one-on-one consultations with Singaporean investors. In addition to Korea’s existing investors, those from 50 major investor companies including Enterprise Singapore (ESG), Temasek, and GIC’s PE also took part in the consultations.   date2024-10-29

MOTIE & MSIT launch technical exchange for Next-Gen Intelligent Chip Technology Development PJT

The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE) and the Ministry of Science and ICT (MSIT) of the Republic of Korea hosted a technical exchange for the Next-Generation Intelligent Semiconductor Technology Development Project (“Project”) from October 28–29 on Jeju Island to promote sharing of research outcomes and latest technology trends. The Project is a joint initiative by MOTIE and MSIT with over KRW 1 trillion in investment over a 10-year period since 2020 for developing technologies related to semiconductor devices, design, and manufacturing processes. Project outcomes so far include the ultra-low power phase change memory (KAIST), next-generation datacenter accelerator (FuriosaAI), sensor convergence AI system-on-chip (SoC) and autonomous vehicle electronic control unit (ECU) platform (Nextchip), and chemical mechanical planarization (CMP) equipment for 10nm-level shallow trench isolation (STI) processes (KCTech). Over the last five years, the Project has produced 1,472 patent applications, 1,155 Science Citation Index-Expanded (SCIE) journal paper publications, and 1,284 research talents. A total of 114 project-executing institutions are participating in this year’s technical exchange including Korea’s major AI semiconductor fabless companies, Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI), and Seoul National University to share their research progress and outcomes.  Attendees discussed the development of next-generation angstrom-level chip technology for responding to scaling trends in view of the sub-nanometer era. They also touched on the AI chip technology development situation with respect to supporting the super-giant AI model and on-device AI, as well as measures for commercializing five key general-purpose system chip technologies and technical development of processes and equipment needed to manufacture next-generation semiconductors. In conjunction with the exchange, a workshop for training system chip convergence professional manpower was launched to catalyze cooperation between semiconductor manpower training efforts and R&D projects. In addition, the Automobile Semiconductor Manpower Training Center (“Center”) held a joint session with the Korea Automotive Technology Institute (KATECH) to share automobile semiconductor R&D experiences with students taking the master's and doctorate course at the Center, followed by a Q&A session regarding employment in related fields.   date2024-10-29

Korea rolls out AI Autonomous Manufacturing Anchor Projects

Minister for Trade, Industry and Energy Dukgeun Ahn of the Republic of Korea attended the AI Autonomous Manufacturing Anchor Project Agreement Ceremony today in Seoul and announced 26 projects set for launch this year. Participating in the anchor projects are a number of Korea’s major manufacturing companies including Hyundai Motor, GS Caltex, Samsung Heavy Industries, POSCO, and Korean Air. With 213 submissions sent in for the selection of 10 projects, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE) increased the number of anchor projects from the initial 10 to 26 as a nod to companies’ keen interest, which can be attributed to artificial intelligence (AI) playing a crucial role in their future manufacturing survival strategy. The AI Autonomous Manufacturing Anchor Project is meaningful in that AI is an efficient means of responding to working age population declines and demographic shifts. With the introduction of AI, human errors are decreased, quality control can reach new heights, and businesses can react quickly to consumer needs and other rapidly changing market trends. AI deployment further contributes to carbon reduction and onsite safety, enhances productivity, and reduces costs across all sectors. The total investment for the 26 anchor projects amounts to KRW 3.7 trillion, ₩190 billion of which the Korean government and local authorities will be funding over a four-year period. Through the anchor projects, MOTIE is looking forward to raising productivity by over 30 percent, while lowering costs, product defect rate, and energy consumption by over 20 percent, 50 percent, and 10 percent, respectively. Beginning with 26 projects this year, MOTIE plans to increase the number of anchor projects to 200 by 2027, which are expected to draw over ₩20 trillion in investment to Korea. Going forward, the anchor projects will center around the AI Autonomous Manufacturing Alliance (“Alliance”), which the ministry launched in July 2024 with the participation of 153 companies and institutions from 12 sectors in order to prevent the anchor projects from being reduced to a one-time or sporadic event. MOTIE intends to scale up the overall project to cover SMEs, middle-market companies, and large corporations within the Alliance based on sector-specific roadmaps.  For firms neither part of the Alliance nor anchor projects, an AI Manufacturing Foundation Model will be developed starting this year with a total investment of ₩10 billion, with the participation of related research institutions like the Korea Institute of Industrial Technology (KITECH) and the Korea Electronics Technology Institute (KETI). Based on data and technologies gained through the anchor projects, these institutions will work in tandem to create the foundation model for distribution across manufacturing sites by 2026 or later. Using the foundation model, manufacturers will be able to establish AI manufacturing systems tailored to their respective procedures. Local government bodies will also join in the effort to spread the use of AI in Korea’s manufacturing sites. First, they will work on uncovering anchor projects with a focus on locally specialized industries. Moreover, they will push the establishment of AI autonomous manufacturing hubs to promote the diffusion of AI within their regions. Industrial complexes will assist tenant businesses’ AI manufacturing innovations by providing a simulation center, module center, and an innovation data center for shared use. K-SURE is to provide ₩10 trillion in trade financing over a five-year period to assist the AI autonomous manufacturing projects of companies taking part in the Alliance.   date2024-10-28

Korea proposes technical committee for international MVDC standards at IEC General Meeting 2024

The Korean Agency for Technology and Standards (KATS) under the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE) of the Republic of Korea announced on October 27 that it proposed the launching of a technical committee (TC) for the legislation of international standards for medium voltage direct currents (MVDC) during the IEC General Meeting 2024 held in Edinburgh, UK, through October 21–25. The TC proposal comes as a follow-up measure to the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC)’s selection of Korea’s MVDC technology as a key future standards area this May. Following previous TCs for printed electronics (2011) and wearables (2017), the TC for MVDC is the third to be pushed by Korea. It is anticipated that the transmission of direct currents produced from harnessing hydrogen fuel cells, solar energy and such new renewable sources will substantially contribute to securing technological competitiveness in the global MVDC grid market. On the margins of the IEC General Meeting, KATS and the Czech Office for Standards, Metrology and Testing (UNMZ) entered a two-year arrangement on implementing standards cooperation including plans for a bilateral technical standards workshop on artificial intelligence (AI) and electric vehicle (EV) chargers, as well as launching a Korea-Czech Standards Cooperation Forum for closer standards collaboration, with a view to support the two countries’ comprehensive economic cooperation over industries, trade, and energy as a follow-up to Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol’s state visit to the Czech Republic this September.   date2024-10-28

Korea announces International Standards Strategy on Convergence Robot Technology

The Korean Agency for Technology and Standards (KATS) under the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE) of the Republic of Korea announced today the Convergence Robot Technology International Standards Strategy (“Strategy") for supporting the Korean robot industry’s global super gap securing efforts. In line with Korea’s national standardization strategy for advanced industries announced this May, the above Strategy was established through the international robot standardization forum composed of related academia, industry, and research experts. With the acceleration of digital transformation based on artificial intelligence (AI) and 5G, the scope of demand for robots is extending beyond industrial uses to include a wider range of areas such as logistics, housework, delivery, and care service. In view of this trend, the Strategy outlines the plan to push 21 Korean Standard (KS) legislations and 16 key international standard proposals for mainly wearable, rehabilitation, and home service robots by 2028. Notably, the Strategy contains an international standard proposal on safety precautions for users of rehabilitation robots for the physically challenged, a joint research project in progress by the Korea Association of Robot Industry (KARI) and the Rehabilitation Engineering and Assistive Technology Society of North America (RESNA). Accordingly, KARI and RESNA signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) for the joint development, utilization, and sharing of relevant international standards on the margins of the Strategy announcement.   date2024-10-25