Sung Yun-mo "Presenting K-Bio and Quarantine Support Measures... Will Assist Market Entry by Revising Regulations"

Dialogue on Bio Industry and Post-Corona Industrial Strategy
Expanding Market Testing Opportunities through Regulatory Sandbox
Incheon and Chungbuk Free Economic Zones Present Development Goals for 2030

Sung Yun-mo, Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy. / Photo by Moon Ho-nam munonam@

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Bo-kyung] Sung Yun-mo, Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy, announced on the 19th that each ministry will present plans to support K-Bio and K-Quarantine. He also stated that opportunities for bio companies to test new products and technologies in the market will be expanded by utilizing the regulatory sandbox system.

Minister Sung made these remarks at the '4th Post-COVID Industrial Strategy Dialogue' held at the Incheon Free Economic Zone Authority on the same day.

The meeting was attended by CEOs of bio companies such as Samsung Biologics and Celltrion, support organizations including the Incheon and Chungbuk Free Economic Zone Authorities, and KOTRA, to discuss strategies for promoting the bio industry.

Despite the global market downturn caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the biohealth sector recorded a historic high export of $1.09 billion last month. Export performance has increased for eight consecutive months.

Regarding this, Minister Sung evaluated, "This is the result of our bio industry proactively responding to the global demand expansion by timely producing and supplying high-quality and reliable products such as COVID-19 diagnostic kits."

He added, "We will present and promote specific plans by each ministry to support K-Bio and K-Quarantine, led by the COVID-19 treatment and vaccine development roadmap being established by the joint public-private government support group."

In particular, he emphasized, "We will further enhance the global status of K-Bio and K-Quarantine by supporting the international standardization of K-Quarantine and the package export of quarantine equipment, diagnostic kits, and information systems."

Furthermore, Minister Sung said, "Since January this year, we have been focusing on improving key regulations by establishing a biohealth regulatory improvement roadmap. We will actively utilize the regulatory sandbox system to expand opportunities for bio companies to test new products and technologies in the market."

Currently, through the regulatory sandbox, seven cases of demonstration exceptions including the expansion of DTC genetic service items and wristwatch-type heart management services, as well as one case of temporary approval, are allowed and pilot projects are underway.

Minister Sung stated, "For technologies and products whose safety and effectiveness have been verified, we will adjust regulations to meet the perspective of companies so that timely market entry is possible, and will closely cooperate with related ministries."

In addition, the government plans to promote ▲support for localization of raw materials and equipment ▲establishment of bio process workforce training centers ▲formulation of customized strategies for bio clusters and open innovation to create an innovative ecosystem for the bio industry.

At the meeting, the heads of the Incheon and Chungbuk Free Economic Zone Authorities each announced plans to revitalize the bio industry in their respective free economic zones.

The Incheon Free Economic Zone Authority stated that based on the world's largest bio-pharmaceutical production capacity currently established, it will create additional sites to focus on attracting raw material and supply companies and R&D companies. It also declared its goal to become the world's largest global bio innovation cluster leading K-Bio by expanding the value chain throughout the entire cycle.

To this end, it presented three major strategies and nine promotion tasks: ▲strengthening the research and production value chain for ecosystem creation ▲expanding innovative infrastructure for fostering K-Bio ▲activating a win-win network based on open innovation.

In particular, it set targets for the Songdo Bio Cluster to achieve by 2030 in terms of resident companies (700), employment scale (20,000 people), cumulative investment (15 trillion won), and sales (10 trillion won).

The Chungbuk Free Economic Zone Authority announced six major strategies under the vision of becoming a global bio industry cluster by 2030, including 'Establishment of Osong Bio R&BD Infrastructure,' 'Activation of Bio Core Talent Training,' and 'Fostering Companies through Innovation Startup Ecosystem Creation.'

Through these, it conveyed development goals by 2030 in bio startups (1,000), production scale (7 trillion won), and workforce training (50,000 people).

The bio industry requested the construction of facilities to supply bio professionals, deregulation to create new markets, and expansion of incentives such as tax benefits. The contents discussed on this day will be reflected in future bio industry-related policy formulation through consultations with relevant ministries.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.