SEOUL, August 13 (AJP) -South Korea is placing seven long-term bets on technologies from small modular reactors and fusion power to quantum computing and brain-computer interfaces to secure new growth engines for the 2030s and beyond, as demographic decline and slowing investment threaten to deepen structural low growth.
The government on Wednesday unveiled the seven SEED projects at Cheong Wa Dae on Wednesday, laying out development and commercialization targets spanning clean energy, frontier technologies and critical supply chains.
"The government's direction is clear. We have to get ahead of other countries in future advanced industries," President Lee Jae Myung told the gathering. "We must become a leader, not a follower."
Cabinet ministers and presidential aides joined about 60 participants, including researchers from universities, institutes and companies, science and engineering students and entrepreneurs.
SEED stands for Strategic Emerging Engines for Disruptive Innovation. The projects are intended to cultivate technologies that could become major industries 10 to 20 years from now, beyond the government's existing mega projects in semiconductors, physical AI and AI data centers.
The Ministry of Science and ICT said Korea's potential growth rate has slipped into the 1 percent range as the working-age population shrinks and investment weakens, making reliance on existing manufacturing strengths increasingly difficult.
Nuclear energy forms one of the most ambitious parts of the program. Korea plans to commercialize its light-water innovative SMR in Gijang, Busan, by 2035 while developing non-light-water reactors through public-private special-purpose companies.
The government also plans a technology-neutral, performance-based licensing system by 2030 and wants SMRs deployed beyond conventional power plants, including industrial complexes, ships, defense and space. It will seek uranium-supply partnerships with countries including the United States and Britain while developing longer-term spent-fuel recycling capabilities.
Fusion development will proceed on a similarly compressed timetable. Korea plans to use an AI-based virtual fusion reactor to speed design and plasma-control work, with a 100-megawatt demonstration reactor targeted for power production from 2039. Commercial reactors would follow in the 2040s.
The quantum program seeks to turn Korea's semiconductor manufacturing strength into an advantage in the next computing platform. A proposed K-Quantum Foundry, led by major chipmakers through a public-private venture, would build domestic quantum-chip production capacity alongside a Korean full-stack quantum computer.
Space ambitions range from lunar exploration to communications infrastructure. Korea plans lunar missions in 2030 and 2032 and wants its own low-Earth-orbit satellite communications network by 2035, while supporting Korean companies seeking roles in next-generation commercial aircraft development.
In biotechnology, AI and robotics will be used to accelerate drug discovery and biological manufacturing, while brain-computer interface technology is targeted for commercial use by 2035.
The seventh project addresses a weakness closer to the present: Korea's dependence on foreign critical minerals and components despite its strength in finished manufacturing.
The government plans to double maximum strategic stockpiles to 365 days for selected resources and invest 10 trillion won in materials, components and equipment technologies through 2030. A separate 5 trillion won program will link major manufacturers with suppliers in 15 joint development projects.
The strategy also calls for changes to the country's research system, including institution-level funding for universities, mission-oriented government research institutes and an investment-style R&D scheme that allows the state to take equity in companies and recycle returns into new research.
A public-private task force headed by the deputy prime minister for science and technology will coordinate the projects and review their roadmaps, funding and regulatory hurdles.
The longer-term concept is to reinvest capital generated by today's semiconductor and AI industries into emerging technologies, turning some of the seven SEEDs into Korea's next generation of mega industries.
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