By Kim Tae Won and Kim Young Shin

Moon Jae-in’s innovation-led growth strategy, one of the two major economic pillars of the Moon administration, will be put into practice to mark the sophomore year of this administration. Government officials vowed to create 300,000 jobs by 2022 in eight leading sectors, including drones and future automobiles.

The government authorities related to the economy, such as President Moon Jae-in, Prime Minister Lee Nak-yon and Deputy Prime Minister and the Minister of Strategy and Finance Kim Dong Yeon, as well as business leaders, attended the ministerial report on the innovation-led growth in 2018 held at the Magok R&D complex in Seoul on May 17. They evaluated the progress of the government's innovation-led growth strategies.

Deputy Prime Minister Kim pointed out the major progress that has been made in the innovation-led growth strategies. “There has been an expansion of innovation-led businesses and an increased number of start-up investments, an increase in demand for green cars and a boost in private investment in the renewable energy field, the launching of new services using AI and fin-tech and market formation, and an increase in the number of new product developments and exports by small- and medium-sized corporations in new industries," he said.

President Moon emphasized the importance of innovation in terms of regulations. “We have to speed up innovation in regulations that hinder innovation-led growth,” said the president in his opening statement. “We have to lift the restrictions boldly.”

“Innovation-led growth is, of course, led by the private sector, but the government must serve the role of catalyst,” he continued. “Especially for early market formations, we must expand the demand in the public sector.”

twkim0717@korea.kr