S. Korea to Focus on Green Growth

South Korean government announced that it will invest 3 trillion won (2.7 billion U.S. dollars) in the next five years to foster green energy sector, Korea Herald reported Friday.

Realizing the importance of environment and energy related industry, the government aims to grab 13 percent of the global market share by 2030 in the green energy sector, the newspaper said.

A blueprint for this plan has been reported to President Lee Myung-bak and more detailed development roadmap is to be completed by March 2008, the Ministry of Knowledge Economy said.

According to the ministry, this is the first national strategy to develop green energy industries with the aim of making them a new engine for economic growth.

The government chose nine industries in the green energy sector including solar energy, wind energy, fuel cells, power plants using synthetic gas, energy storage technology, light emitting diodes technology and IT-based electricity control systems, the ministry said.

At present, the nine industries account for only 0.2 percent of South Korea’s gross domestic product, with only 9,000 workers, it said.

"The local industry is in its infancy. But we still have chances, because there is almost no company that can be described as a global leader in this field yet," the ministry said.

The government wishes to enhance the economic efficiency in the solar energy sector by bringing down production cost of solar power from the current 700 won (63 U.S. cent) per kilowatt-hour to 150 won (14 U.S. cent) by 2020, it said.

In order to accomplish this goal it plans to raise a fund of 360 billion won (330 million U.S. dollars), including 160 billion won (145 U.S. dollars) from private companies, it added.

The ministry said the government also wants to build mid-scale wind power facilities using domestic technology as well as developing next-generation fuel cell technologies.