Seoul to spend $268 million to develop parts industry

The Korean government plans to invest 278 billion won (US$268.0 million) this year to bolster the country’s materials and components manufacturing industry which has been pinpointed as the main cause of Korea’s growing trade deficit with Japan. From 2000 till last year, Korea has spent a total of 1.46 trillion won (US$1.4 billion) to support the research and development of domestic materials and components makers and raise their competitiveness. “We plan to draw up more detailed measures for the local materials and components manufacturing industry in order to address the trade imbalance problem with Japan,” the Ministry of Knowledge Economy said in a press release. It said it would inject 26 billion won (US$25.1 million) in areas such as the light emitting diodes technology where the local firms are more equipped to replace their Japanese competitors to supply end-product makers in Korea. (May 14, 2008)