The Seoul Metropolitan Government (SMG) will provide more strategic R&D support to strengthen the technological competitiveness of domestic companies by investing KRW 38.3 billion in this year’s R&D budget for new jobs and economic development.
The city plans to focus on core future growth engines and accelerate technology commercialization by supporting new industrial technology development; more than a third of the investment will be concentrated in researching and developing new growth engines ranging from fintech to artificial intelligence (AI).
The city will also introduce a system in which private investors can actively invest in competitive companies, and operate its Tech Incubator Program for Startup (TIPS) method starting this year following a matching investment method in which the SMG proceeds with additional investment when private investors invest in companies with growth potential and competitive market share.
Moreover, opportunities to discover ideas will be expand from once a year to five times a year so that innovative ideas can enter the market in time, helping to quickly develop products and commercialize new technologies in pace with technological change.
Lastly, empirical support will also be expanded to ensure market stability; the city will reinforce its assistance and follow-up support by providing open access to Seoul’s infrastructure for companies to conduct testbed experiments to ensure sufficient technology verification required to enter markets.
Seoul plans to continue to actively support the industrial R&D of new growth engines from fintech to biopharmaceutical industries so that companies with competitive technologies can play an active role in domestic and global markets as industry leaders of Industry 4.0 for Seoul to enhance its urban competitiveness.