[fn Editorial] Launch of 15 Major Innovation Projects, Should Be a Guide to Growth

Lee Jaemyung government marks its 100th day on the 11th. The keywords that President Lee Jaemyung has consistently emphasized over the past 100 days are 'growth and pragmatism'. He has presented specific goals such as achieving a potential growth rate of 3% and a KOSPI index of 5000. The honeymoon period of the new government's launch is over, and now it's time to launch projects to achieve these goals in earnest.

The new government plans to launch the '15 Major Leading Projects for Super-Innovative Economy' to boost the potential growth rate. A joint public-private task force will be formed in 20 fields, including next-generation power semiconductors, graphene, and LNG ship technology, with a detailed roadmap to be completed by November at the latest. Additionally, to achieve a KOSPI index of 5000, the plan is to launch a '150 trillion won National Growth Fund'. The growth policy, which sounded abstract, is taking on a concrete framework.

The market response to the new government advocating growth is also positive. On the eve of President Lee's 100th-day press conference, the KOSPI index hit its highest level in 4 years and 3 months from the morning. However, the positive response so far is likely due to psychological expectations following the new government's launch. To prevent these expectations from turning into disappointment, the two major projects proposed by the new government must be properly executed. From now on, it is necessary to move beyond the planning stage to policy execution and produce results.

Most importantly, selection and concentration are crucial. While it is good to ambitiously pursue 15 leading projects, the scarcity of resources must be considered. Therefore, instead of distributing resources evenly across all projects, strategic choices must be made to focus on fields with relative advantages or high growth potential in the global market. In particular, strategic choices considering the connectivity with fields where competitiveness has been secured, such as semiconductors and batteries, are necessary.

Regulatory innovation must follow the work of discovering new businesses. No matter how good a technology is developed, it cannot move forward if outdated regulations persist. Although the government says it will remove the barriers to innovation for new projects, it remains to be seen whether it can overcome the nature of administrative convenience.

The goal of securing competitiveness must also be aligned with global standards. Some of the goals among the super-innovative economy projects seem to be focused on domestic technology independence. However, in today's era, domestic technology independence alone cannot survive in global competition. It is necessary to actively review technology indicators that can compete globally beyond technology independence.

When promoting such national projects, the issue of nurturing and securing talent cannot be overlooked. Moreover, industries related to super-innovation are all advanced technology fields. It is difficult to grow into technology that leads the world without specialized personnel. Even if a 150 trillion won growth fund is created and money is poured in, it is useless if there is no talent to actually move it.

Performance evaluation and feedback systems for each project are also essential. The government will expect visible results within five years. However, any project will experience numerous trials and errors different from the initial plan. Therefore, step-by-step performance must be measured, and if problems arise, the direction must be boldly changed through regular inspections. It is hoped that the new government's growth blueprint will proceed smoothly and achieve the desired results, leading to a transition to an innovative economy. For this, public-private cooperation is more important than ever, and sufficient policy support must be provided.