Ando-geol Deputy Minister of Economy and Finance: "Health Budget Focused on Smart Healthcare and COVID-19 Vaccine Development"

Vice Minister An to Hold 'Health and Medical Budget Council' on the 10th

[Asia Economy Reporter Jang Sehee] Ando-geol, the 2nd Vice Minister of the Ministry of Economy and Finance, stated on the 10th, "We will focus investments on establishing a global vaccine hub, advancing quarantine infrastructure, building an ICT-based smart medical and health management system, and strengthening the global competitiveness of the healthcare industry."

On the same day, Vice Minister Ando-geol held a budget consultation meeting for the health and medical sector at Severance Hospital in Yongin, discussing investment achievements and next year's budget investment directions in the health and medical fields.

Next year's health sector investments will focus on four tasks: establishing a global vaccine hub, advancing quarantine infrastructure, building an ICT-based smart medical and health management system, and strengthening the global competitiveness of the healthcare industry.

The global vaccine hub plan will intensively support the rapid development of domestically produced COVID-19 vaccines, expand global vaccine production cooperation, and swiftly establish a global vaccine hub foundation. The goal is to reach the world's 5th largest vaccine market by 2025, supporting the development of domestic COVID-19 vaccines by the first half of next year.

Advancement of public infrastructure such as quarantine will focus on establishing a community quarantine system centered on 35 specialized infectious disease hospitals and local medical centers.

The smart medical health management system will expand digital care for vulnerable groups using ICT devices and support data-centric hospitals and smart hospitals that create medical services by utilizing medical information big data.

Additionally, biohealth research and development (R&D) will be strengthened, and specialized personnel such as bio-processing and production workers will be trained. A public-private joint Korean-style vaccine development and bio fund will be established to support startups in pharmaceuticals, medical devices, and digital healthcare packages.

Meanwhile, Vice Minister Ando-geol emphasized, "As a smart leading model for infectious disease response, selecting and focusing support on five consortium hospitals helped alleviate and prevent issues such as increased workload for medical staff and shortage of intensive care unit medical personnel during the COVID-19 situation."

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