Economy and Finance Minister Choo Kyung-ho Friday announced plans to solidify the supply chain cooperation between South Korea and Japan in the proposed semiconductor cluster to be established near Seoul as well as began work to increase flights between the two countries.

The government will also actively promote and support cooperation with Japan in the areas of new industries, joint investment and supply chain, and plans to activate a council of relevant ministries to materialize bilateral supply chain cooperation in the semiconductor cluster to be created in Yongin, Choo said while presiding over an emergency ministerial meeting on economic affairs in Seoul.

Under the plans, the government will promote a higher education international student exchange program and expand high school student, academic, cultural, and youth exchanges between Korean and Japan, while restoring more than 30 government dialogue channels and reopening communication channels between Japan and Korean business organizations.

“The government has prepared a set of follow-up tasks in the economic field to support the agreements in the Japan-Korea summit by ministries to restore bilateral ties as soon as possible,” Choo said. “The government will restore bilateral people-to-people exchanges to the level before the deterioration of diplomatic relations between the two countries. To support the goal of 10,000 youth and 10 million people exchanging visits annually, we will soon begin work on increasing flights between the two countries.”

In terms of bilateral cooperation, he said the two countries will establish a cooperation network among Korean and Japanese companies bidding for overseas infrastructure projects, create a joint fund for ventures and R&D, jointly respond to the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act and the European Union’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism, and conduct joint research on low birthrate, population aging and climate challenges within the year.

“As the summit paves the way to restore bilateral ties, we expect significant positive effects on our economy. The effect will be even greater if we take into account the restoration of the supply chain for key items such as semiconductor chemicals and the synergy of cooperation in high-tech fields between the two countries,” Choo said.

“It is very encouraging to see signs of improved relations in the private sector of both countries, such as the resumption of school trips by Japanese high schools to Korea,” Choo said. “We will continue to identify and promote new tasks while making the results of our cooperation visible.”

The deputy prime minister also detailed plans to accelerate the construction of the proposed advanced industrial belt, which will create 15 national industrial parks across the country. The government will launch a pan-governmental support group this month and finalize the selection of project implementers by April so that construction can begin as early as 2026, he said.



In the bio-health sector, the government will provide procedural preferences for domestic companies to obtain overseas certifications for their medicines, while supporting domestic medical devices to expand quality certification for World Health Organization’s procurement.

For the cosmetics industry, the government will negotiate exemptions from local inspections to help expand exports to China, while building national and ethnic genomic data to support the industry’s development of individualized products.

According to details for the national advanced industrial belt released by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, the implementers of new industrial complex projects will be diversified to include Korea Land & Housing Corp., Korea Railroad Corp., K-Water and local urban development corporations, considering the location and industry characteristics of each candidate site.

Earlier, the government announced that it will designate 15 new national industrial complexes across the country, including the creation of the world’s largest system semiconductor cluster in Yongin, to foster the semiconductor, future vehicle and space industries.

For industrial complexes that need to be fast-tracked, the government will accelerate preliminary feasibility studies for public corporations and priority will be given in the review process.

To strengthen regional industrial competitiveness, the development of urban convergence special zones will be in full swing in the five regional cities.

The government also plans to support high-tech strategic industrial complexes for materials, components and equipment (MCE) companies, smart innovation districts, and campus innovation parks close to candidate sites for national industrial complexes in consideration of synergy effects.

By Pulse

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