Kim Yong-beom, director of the Presidential Office's policy planning office, said on social media on the 12th that "we must connect industries that have already secured competitiveness with technologies whose potential is only beginning to emerge." It was the first message Kim had posted on social media in 17 days.
In a post on his Facebook account, Kim wrote that "capital from the industries earning money today must flow into the industries that will earn money tomorrow." He emphasized combining megaprojects centered on semiconductors, physical artificial intelligence (AI) and data centers with seven advanced technologies including small modular reactors (SMRs).
"Semiconductors are one of the most important industrial assets South Korea has painstakingly built up," Kim said, raising the question of "whether industries that can represent Korea on the global market, following semiconductors, will keep emerging" as he cited the next-generation advanced technologies known as SEED. SEED refers to a set of sectors expected to become core economic and security assets of the future: small modular reactors (SMRs), nuclear fusion, renewable energy, quantum technology, space and aviation, advanced bio, and supply chains for advanced materials and components.
Kim said the effort is "about looking ahead to see which industries among the small seeds will grow enough to sustain South Korea 10 or 20 years from now, and preparing the soil to take root ahead of others," describing the 7 SEED as not merely a list of promising future technologies gathered together.
He also stressed that "the 3 megaprojects and the 7 SEED cannot be seen as separate policies," adding that "they should be seen as a single industrial structure that grows one another, and the technology accumulated in AI chips becomes the foundation for growing the other seeds." He continued, "What is needed now is to grow the industries that have already become giant trees even stronger while planting new seeds," adding that "even if fruit is not yet visible, we must steadily water the seeds that have potential."
