SME R&D Investment Focuses on 'Digital, Environment, and Energy'

[Asia Economy Reporter Donghyun Choi] The strategic investment direction for future research and development (R&D) of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) is focused on digital, environmental, and energy sectors, considering information and communication technology (ICT) and carbon neutrality.

The Ministry of SMEs and Startups announced the "2022-2024 SME Technology Roadmap" on the 27th, which presents the strategic investment direction for future R&D of SMEs. The roadmap is established every three years by investigating and analyzing domestic and international market and technology trends, as well as the latest technology development trends, to discover promising future items and technologies and provide related information and future R&D investment directions to SMEs.

This year, a total of 32 fields and 224 items were selected as strategic products after evaluating the technological feasibility and marketability of products and technologies discovered by businesspeople, the general public, and experts. Advanced ICT-related items to respond to the acceleration of digital transformation were selected, including artificial intelligence (AI) new drug development, material design, creative platforms, and spatial big data convergence solutions. Considering the importance of carbon neutrality, environmental and energy-related items such as carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) were also significantly expanded. Additionally, 25 items closely related to the daily lives of the public, discovered through brainstorming on disaster safety, environment, and health, were included.

For the items included in the roadmap, focused support will be provided in connection with major technology development projects promoted by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups this year to drive SME investment. The number of target projects this year is five, which is 2.5 times more than last year. During the same period, the support budget also expanded from 51.2 billion KRW to 87.9 billion KRW.

Won Young-jun, Director of Technology Innovation Policy at the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, said, "We hope that the roadmap announced this time will be of great help to our SMEs that are considering investment directions and strategies for technology development amid rapidly changing technology and business environments," adding, "At the government level, we plan to support the products and technologies included in the roadmap not only with technology development funds but also by linking with other policies of the Ministry of SMEs and Startups."

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