Policy-type New Deal Fund Invests in Robots and Healthcare

Deputy Prime Minister Hong Unveils Guidelines for 40 Sectors... Also Calls for Policy Support for Essential Workers

Hong Nam-ki, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy and Finance, is delivering opening remarks at the '4th Korean New Deal Ministerial Meeting and 17th Central Emergency Economic Countermeasures Headquarters Meeting' held on the 28th at the Government Seoul Office in Jongno-gu, Seoul. Photo by Kang Jin-hyung aymsdream@

[Asia Economy Reporters Kim Hyunjung and Jang Sehee] The government has presented 197 items related to 40 fields including robots, aerospace, games, and smart healthcare as investment targets for policy-type New Deal funds among citizen-participatory New Deal funds, and disclosed the scope criteria for New Deal infrastructure investments. After gathering market opinions and revising laws, the plan is to launch funds that can actually invest by early next year.

Hong Namki, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy and Finance, chaired the "4th Korean New Deal Ministerial Meeting and 17th Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasure Headquarters Meeting" held at the Government Seoul Office on the 28th, where he revealed these investment guidelines. This is a follow-up measure to activate the three types of citizen-participatory New Deal funds announced earlier this month: ▲policy-type New Deal funds ▲New Deal infrastructure funds ▲private New Deal funds.

First, for the investment fields of the policy-type New Deal funds, the government selected 40 fields (excluding overlaps between digital and green New Deals) including robots, energy efficiency improvement, smart farms, eco-friendly consumer goods, immersive content, next-generation semiconductors, object detection, games, aerospace, and smart healthcare. Investments are possible not only in the relevant companies or projects but also in related wholesale and retail, transportation, materials, and parts, covering upstream and downstream businesses.

The investment scope of New Deal infrastructure funds, which invest a certain ratio or more in New Deal fields, is defined as ▲infrastructure (social overhead capital) that forms the basis for realizing the digital and green economy presented in the Korean New Deal Comprehensive Plan. Whether the criteria are met is confirmed by the "New Deal Infrastructure Deliberation Committee." Examples of projects include 5G communication networks, cloud and data centers, green remodeling, and smart water and sewage systems. The government plans to collect industry opinions on the guidelines before launching the funds, supplement them, and proceed through business briefings and legal revisions.

Deputy Prime Minister Hong also announced that policy support measures for essential workers whose working environments have worsened due to the COVID-19 pandemic, such as healthcare and care workers, delivery drivers, and sanitation workers, will be reviewed.

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