Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy Publishes White Paper "K-SoBuJang Writes a New History"

Two Years Since Japan's Export Restrictions…Dependence on Japan for Top 100 Core Items Imports Drops from 31.4% to 24.9%
Overall Dependence on the Materials, Parts, and Equipment Industry at a Historic Low of 15.9%

[Sejong=Asia Economy Reporter Joo Sang-don] The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy announced on the 31st that it has published the white paper titled "Writing a New History for K-Materials, Parts, and Equipment."

The white paper contains the process and key contents of the "Materials, Parts, and Equipment Competitiveness Enhancement Measures" established in response to Japan's export restrictions in July 2019, and the "Materials, Parts, and Equipment 2.0 Strategy (July 2020)" prepared to proactively respond to the global supply chain restructuring movement caused by the worldwide spread of COVID-19 in 2020, as well as the achievements in competitiveness enhancement so far.

The white paper is largely composed of a prologue and Parts 1, 2, and 3. The prologue provides explanations of the materials, parts, and equipment ecosystem and key statistics to help understand the importance of the industry and the current status of Korea's materials, parts, and equipment industry. Part 1 covers the background and main contents of the establishment of the Materials, Parts, and Equipment 1.0 and 2.0 policies.

Part 2 presents the achievements over the two years of the materials, parts, and equipment initiatives. According to it, the dependence on Japanese imports for the top 100 core items, which was 31.4% from January to May 2019, fell by 6.5 percentage points to 24.9% from January to May this year. The overall dependence on Japanese imports in the materials, parts, and equipment industry also recorded a historic low of 15.9% during the same period, the lowest since related statistics began to be compiled in 2001. Furthermore, dependence on China, the top country for materials, parts, and equipment imports besides Japan, also decreased from 29.8% to 26.7% during the same period.

Minister Moon Seung-wook said in the white paper's foreword, "The efforts to strengthen competitiveness in materials, parts, and equipment over the past two years are beginning to bear fruit one by one," adding, "In the mega trends of carbon neutrality implementation and digital transformation driven by the 4th Industrial Revolution, we will be a reliable partner so that our materials, parts, and equipment companies can create future markets with super-gap competitiveness and lead the global supply chain."

The white paper will be distributed to public libraries nationwide, the National Assembly, local governments, government ministries, and related organizations. The full text is also available for anyone to view on the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy's website.

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