The Ministry of Knowledge Economy (MKE) has come up with a plan to pitch in for the commercializing of new business models so that they can create business opportunities amid upheavals in the conditions of the global market.

Director General Jung Yang-ho, in charge of technology policy at the MKE, said the ministry released on Feb. 29 the action plan for the implementation of a project to develop and commercialize technologies such as commercialization planning, additional technology development, and the manufacturing of prototype products. To this end, he said, the MKE set aside 3 billion won for financial support.

Given the reality that companies are having hard times exploring business models lately, the plan calls for business commercialization agencies to provide a wide range of services ranging from planning through the holding of the public contest of exploring creative business models to commercialization.

The commercialization project will serve as an opportunity not only for Korean commercialization agencies such as technology transfer organizations, technology companies, and venture capital firms with backward commercialization standing to ramp up their capabilities, but also for industry communities to accelerate their efforts to explore excellent business models based on creative infrastructure, departing from the conventional format of developing new technologies, MKE officials said. 

Since 1966, the government has implemented the technology development for commercialization project as a bridge between technology development and commercialization, eliminating bottlenecks in the course of R&D and commercialization. The project has become a representative one. 

To this end, the MKE has appropriated a total of 27 billion won for its 2012 budget. The figure breaks down to 13.5 billion won for forming consortiums among prominent companies and research institutes with excellent commercialization capacity; 8.1 billion won for supporting commercialization of technologies transferred from state-financed research institutes and universities within three years; and 4.5 billion won for supporting commercialization for creative SMEs. In the case of forming consortiums among prominent companies and research institutes with excellent commercialization capacity, 8 billion won will be provided for implementing seven new projects and 5.5 billion won will be set aside for the continuity of the four existing tasks. Fifty-four projects for 10 state-financed research institutes are being implemented to support the commercialization of technologies transferred from state-financed research institutes and universities within three years.

Technology development for commercialization has shifted from the commercialization of technologies transferred from state-financed research institutes to a more competitive system among transferred technologies. The MKE appropriated 2.5 billion won and 5.6 billion won for commercializing technologies from universities and private sector research institutes, respectively.