The Ministry of Strategy and Finance announced an additional revised supplementary budget of 35.3 trillion won to prepare for the post-corona era on June 3. A total of 5.1 trillion won will be invested in Korean New Deal, which focuses on the 4th industrial revolution technologies; AI and 5G business were included in the budget but blockchain industry wasn’t.
The budget of Korean New Deal included plans such as Digital New Deal (2.7 trillion won), Green New Deal (1.4 trillion won) and Employment Safety Net (1 trillion won). In particular, a total of 4.1 trillion won will be invested in digital & green New Deals, which is expected to lead South Korea’s rapid digitalization.
The government will focus on fostering data, 5G, AI and non-face-to-face industries through the digital new deal plan corresponding to the 4th industrial revolution. To this end, the government plans to open public data sequentially and expand the big data platform, which consists of 10 areas including finance, environment, and cultural transportation, to 15 areas. In addition, the government plans to increase AI learning data to 700 types by 2022. In particular, it aims at expanding human infrastructure by training about 100,000 AI/SW core talents by 2022.
It also supports work to strengthen non-face-to-face services due to corona events. To create a digital-based education infrastructure in every elementary, middle and high schools, a WiFi network will be established and related equipment will be replaced. It also supports the replacement of obsolete servers in universities and reinforcement of vocation training institutions’ online education system by installing future education centers and remote education support centers.
Remote working infrastructure will be distributed to small and medium-sized enterprises that have been directly suffered by corona. A voucher (about 4 million won a year) that can be used to use remote work system solutions will be supported to 160,000 SMEs for 20 to 21 years. In addition, a video conferencing infrastructure for joint use of SMEs will be established. The amount of budget is 301 billion won. In addition, 30 billion won will also be invested in the construction of digital safety management for the four core facilities, the integrated control system for smart cities and the smart logistics system.
Digital conversion will also be applied to Green New Deal. Government is planing to invest 1.4 trillion won to increase efficiency by utilizing digital technologies and equipment, while also taking the lead in protecting the environment.
Meanwhile, blockchain was excluded from this digital new deal policy based on the 4th industrial revolution technology. Blockchain is mentioned as the core technology of the 4th industrial revolution, but it is completely missing from the supplementary plan. An industry official said, “Although blockchain is a core technology of the 4th Industrial Revolution, we can understand the importance of the industry perceived by the government from being excluded from this budget. It is a pity even considering the direction of the budget.”.
번역: 김동우 기자
