Moon Seung-wook, Minister of Industry, "Fostering the Aviation and Aerospace Industries as National Strategic Industries"

[Sejong=Asia Economy Reporter Kwon Haeyoung] Moon Seung-wook, Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy, emphasized on the 14th, "We will strengthen support for new aviation industries such as Urban Air Mobility (UAM) and drones, and expand the role of private companies in the space industry."

Minister Moon attended the '2022 Aerospace Forum' held at the JW Marriott Hotel in Seoul, hosted by the Korea Aerospace Industry Promotion Association and the Korean Society for Aeronautical and Space Sciences, and stated, "We will foster the space and aviation industries as national strategic industries."

At the event, more than 100 industry, academia, and research officials, including Minister Moon, Ahn Hyun-ho, CEO of Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI), and Shin Hyun-woo, CEO of Hanwha Aerospace, gathered to discuss the development direction of the aviation and space industries.

The domestic aviation industry has developed from a simple assembly and production stage in the 1980s to becoming the world's 6th exporter of supersonic aircraft (T-50) and the 11th developer of helicopters (Surion). Domestic production value has grown at an average annual rate of 9.5% since 2000, reaching 6 billion USD in 2019. In 2020, when COVID-19 occurred, it remained at 4.9 billion USD, a decrease of 18.7% compared to the previous year.

The government designated the aircraft manufacturing sector as a special employment support industry and established and implemented a win-win cooperation guarantee system to support the aviation industry ecosystem. The industry is also striving to overcome difficulties by replacing the decrease in passenger demand with air cargo transport and implementing paid leave and vocational training rather than restructuring.

Minister Moon said, "The space and aviation industries have high entry barriers in terms of capital and technology, but if successful in entering, they are technology-intensive industries that can create long-term and stable profits and quality jobs," and added, "To foster the space and aviation industries as national strategic industries, we will pursue policies such as securing competitiveness in core component fields, strengthening support for new aviation industries, and expanding the role of private companies in the space industry."

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