Korea Institute for the Advancement of Technology (KIAT) President Chung Jae-hoon 

speaks as he takes office as the KIAT president. (photo: KIAT)

The Korea Institute for the Advance-ment of Technology (KIAT) will push for joint international R&D projects with foreign research institutes and companies in order to help Korean companies make inroads into global markets, new KIAT President Chung Jae-hoon said.

“Only homegrown technologies cannot be sufficient, and there are some that cannot be imported. In these cases, we’ll seek to make joint R&D projects with Korean-born engineers and experts with foreign research institutes,” Chung said in interviews. He went on to say, “Now is the time when the seeds of the creative economy are sowed, so overseas collaboration is necessary until the fruits are borne.” He made the remarks in interviews he had recently after he took office as the KIAT president on Sept. 3. 

“SMEs and mid-size stalwarts will have change subcontractors of large-size companies into exporting companies, and the Korean government procurement market should undergo changes to accelerate competition among companies,” he said. 

KIAT, he said, will have a program to cultivate gifted manpower through exchanges with foreign technology powers in place to provide support for Korean manpower to learn advanced technologies. In this regard, the Mid-size Company Nurture Support Center of KIAT has a one-stop support system in cooperation with outside institutions, including KOTRA, Small & Medium Business Corp., and Korea Finance Corp. He stressed the need for offering a package of integrated support ranging from financing to securing technology, manpower supply, marketing, management consulting, and expanding of foreign markets so that mid-size companies with independent growth potential can grow into global companies. 

“KIAT has a mission of drawing an industrial map: planning R&D policies, implementing specifics and managing project outcomes, so professionalism in the R&D field is more essential than anything else,” he said. 

KIAT, established in 2009, is handling roughly 1 trillion won of the government’s R&D budget. It is charged with fostering gifted manpower, providing support to cultivate parts and materials industries, mid-sized star companies, and local industries, as well as carrying out joint R&D projects with foreign concerns and R&D institutions.

Chung also touched on such issues as woes related to a mismatch between job-seeking and employment, job creation, R&D commercialization, and fostering of mid-sized star companies.

The new KIAT president said he attaches top priority to job creation, saying that the reality is that most mid-sized star companies complain they find it difficult to find gifted manpower due to differences in perception between companies and jobseekers. He said even though SMEs and mid-sized star companies create jobs, young people are unwilling to find them, causing a mismatch between jobseekers and employment. 

In this regard, Chung said, KIAT is implementing a project to help graduates of specialized and Meister high schools make an observation tour to SMEs in their neighborhoods and get information on them as part of efforts to improve people’s recognition of SMEs. KIAT is also offering a scholarship program to college students on the condition that they find jobs from SMEs. 

Concerning commercialization, Chung said, KIAT plans to give a helping hand to the commercialization of technologies developed by research institutions under the umbrella of ministries other than the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE). KIAT’s R&D projects have so far been limited to industrial technologies. Chung pins high hopes on the expanding of its R&D coverage to medicine, transportation, and agro-fisheries sectors related to ministries other than MOTIE. 

He revealed KIAT’s long-term priority R&D investment projects — materials, hybrid automobiles, and high-value marine plant sectors. 

KIAT is now carrying out commercialization-linked technology support projects, including certification of product performance and production of prototypes. KIAT will give consideration to the whole process of commercialization, including the expansion of production lines and employment plans at a stage of launching R&D projects in order to prevent the abandonment of developed technologies, he noted.