Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE) and Ministry of Science and ICT (MSIT) applied for a preliminary feasibility test for ‘G-First Project’ on the 14th. They set the final budget at $2.06 billion (2.4436 trillion KRW) that is more than the budget for the draft of G-First Project ($1.99 billion (2.3556 trillion KRW)). MOTIE and MSIT held a public hearing at Convention Center in Daejeon on the 8th and introduced detailed information about G-First Project. According to their information, number of tasks that will be supported by G-First Project will slowly decrease as the project progresses. Experts suggested that there needs to be a plan that applies demands from industries as close as possible.
◊South Korean Government introduces competitive elements to develop world’s best technologies
Goal of G-First Project is to create new markets in the future by securing fundamental and important technologies at the highest level. G-First Project focuses on supporting medium and long-term difficult projects, proceeding to next steps for fundamental technologies, and preparing supply system for important technologies.
MOTIE and MSIT are going to invest $2.06 billion into G-First Project from 2021 to 2035. They are going to invest $1.18 billion (1.3966 trillion KRW) and $882 million (1.047 trillion KRW) respectively and they will mainly target universities or research institutes.
Three tasks of G-First Project are ‘alchemist-type’ that goes for difficult issues within industries, ‘technology creation-type’ that creates fundamental and basic technologies and ‘supply base-type’ that accumulates and supplies fundamental and important technologies. MOTIE and MSIT are going to invest $641 million (760 billion KRW), $789 million (936 billion KRW), and $630 million (747.6 billion KRW) into alchemist-type, technology creation-type, and supply base-type respectively.
MOTIE and MSIT drastically reinforced competitive elements by utilizing differential support system during process of selecting these tasks. They formed 387 tasks for preliminary planning stage that lasts one to two years starting from 2021 and they applied strategies that include various R&D demands. Final tasks will be shortened to 59 tasks. As G-First Project progresses, number of tasks will go down while size of tasks will expand.
For example, MOTIE and MSIT are going to invest $421,000 (500 million KRW) into each task out of 84 tasks that come from preliminary planning stage (including pilot tasks). During the next phage that will go on for five years, they are going to invest somewhere between $3.37 million and $5.06 million (4 billion KRW and 6 billion KRW) into each task out of 28 tasks.
◊G-First Project strengthens ties between departments
G-First Project drastically strengthens cooperation between different departments. While researches in the past stopped at basic research as follow-up research was stopped due to severance between departments, MOTIE and MSIT are planning to scale up fundamental researches. It is expected that roles of supply bases will take place continuously as fundamental technologies will be secured while it was impossible to accumulate technologies in the past when a project ended.
MOTIE and MSIT co-planned new R&D case as they face new convergence industry generation. G-First Project is meaningful from the fact that it is a large-scale project co-planned by MOTIE and MSIT that take up half of South Korean Government’s fund for R&D. Because the project is supported by these two departments, dealing with new converge industry is seen positively by others.
There will be huge ripple effects if G-First Project is successful. In addition to securing high-valued fundamental and important technologies, competitiveness of markets will be improved by reducing importation of fundamental technologies from foreign countries, improving technical trade balance through technical licensing, and supplying fundamental technologies to small and medium businesses.

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◊Experts ask for more detailed goals of G-First Project
Experts related to R&D are welcoming South Korean Government’s plan to develop super-advanced technologies and they suggested that South Korean Government should consider a way to include demands from various industries as close as possible.
“MOTIE and MSIT have established a frame that connects results from basic research to corresponding industries and a foundation that will allow industries to boldly challenge development of super-advanced technologies.” said Professor Choi Kyung-cheol of KAIST. “They need to select and evaluate fairly and figure out how they are going to apply demands from industries during a process of transferring basic research to corresponding industries.”
Some believe that MOTIE and MSIT need to clarify goals of G-First Project even more so that this project can be promoted smoothly for a long period of time.
“Goals of G-First Project must be clarified even more so that it does not end up like other R&D projects that fell apart after two to three years.” said a representative for a R&D institution.
MOTIE and MSIT stated that they will strengthen cooperation so that G-First Project can be promoted smoothly in the future.
“We planned this project with a mindset of boldly changing paradigms of R&D while applying opinions from businesses.” said Department Head Jung Byung-seon of MSIT’s R&D Policy Department. “We hope that results from basic researches done by research institutions can quickly spread to corresponding industries through accumulation and spread of fundamental and important technologies.”
“We were not able to carry out world’s first R&D in early 1990s and there was not much change to national policies on R&D even afterwards.” said Policy Director Kim Hyun-cheol of MOTIE’s Technology Convergence Policy Bureau. “We are going to reestablish huge framework for R&D through G-First Project and accumulate fundamental technologies and establish a pipeline that will supply fundamental and important technologies to businesses.”
Staff Reporter Byun, Sanggeun | sgbyun@etnews.com