[2024 Budget] 5 Trillion Investment in National Strategic Technology R&D Including AI, Advanced Bio, and Quantum

The government has significantly reduced next year's research and development (R&D) budget to 25.9152 trillion won, a 16.6% decrease from this year, while increasing the R&D budget for national strategic technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), advanced bio, and quantum to 5 trillion won. The government views AI, advanced bio, and quantum as future growth engines and is expanding investments in these areas.

According to the '2024 Budget Plan' announced by the government on the 29th, the R&D investment budget for national strategic technologies will increase by 300 billion won from 4.7 trillion won this year to 5 trillion won.

Choo Kyung-ho, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy and Finance, stated, "We will promote impactful research for national strategic technologies to lead future ecosystems such as advanced bio and space," adding, "We will focus on large-scale projects and expand R&D cooperation to secure top-level technologies, such as Korea-US joint research in advanced bio."

In the AI sector, the budget will increase from 705.1 billion won this year to 737.1 billion won next year, including new allocations for next-generation generative AI technology development and training leading talents in generative AI. The advanced bio sector will receive 962.6 billion won to promote bio and medical technology development and foster research-oriented hospitals. The quantum R&D budget, including the establishment of quantum computing research infrastructure, is set at 125.2 billion won.

The government plans to promote large-scale projects to lead the global industrial ecosystem, focusing on advanced fields such as bio, space, semiconductors, and secondary batteries. To this end, a new budget of 119.5 billion won has been allocated for related projects, including the construction of private launch sites and space environment testing facilities, as well as advanced semiconductor packaging and next-generation secondary battery technology development.

International cooperation in the national strategic technology R&D process will also be strengthened. The government will allocate 86.4 billion won to the 'Boston-Korea Project,' which integrates and utilizes Korea's medical data and the US's advanced bio technology, and will expand performance-oriented projects such as joint research among the world's top domestic and international groups and support for young researchers' participation in leading overseas research.

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