Administrator Lee Seung-woo of Korea Agency for Technology and Standards. (Photo: KATS)

The Korean Agency for Technology and Standards (KATS), under the umbrella of the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE), announced a plan on Jan. 7 to implement four signature policies for the 2021: standardizing carbon neutrality, strengthening safety management in the non-contact era, expanding support for the commercialization of innovative technologies, and improving fundamentals to cope with technology regulations.

To this end, KATS set aside 162.5 billion won in its budget for standardization R&D, the biggest-ever budget, a 20 percent jump over 135.2 billion won in 2020.

Among the new project allocations is 800 million won for spurring new industry associations’ standardization, 5.8 billion won for supporting safety technologies for convergence and innovative technology products, 4.9 billion won to build infrastructure for testing K-quarantine household goods, 3 billion won for building smart metrology infrastructure and measurement technology infrastructure.

KATS plans to establish strategies to standardize carbon neutrality, one of the agency’s signature policies.

KATS is aggressively striving to develop standards to realize carbon neutrality by making the most of green technologies such as prominent low-carbon and digital technologies in the battery and hydrogen sectors.

The step is designed to support the establishment of an ecosystem for promising new low-carbon industries such as renewable energy, hydrogen, EV and market entry as well as realizing carbon neutrality by 2050.

The strategies to standardize carbon neutrality will be reflected in the fifth national standardization master plan between 2021 and 2025, to be announced in March.

The agency plans to establish a carbon neutrality standardization roadmap, calling for detailed standardization tasks and strategy goals in the first half of the year.

As for ramping up safety management in the con-contact era, KATS plans to strengthen safety management for products being sold in non-contact, online channels, reflecting non-contact-oriented consumption trends.

Masks, air purifiers, sterilizers and sanitizers will be added to a list of products required for safety management, and intensive inspections will be conducted against products for indoor leisure and hobby activities.

As for expanding support for the commercialization of innovative technology, KATS plans to expand support for the commercialization of new convergence products to help them enter the diverse innovative technology markets in the testing and verification fields.

The scope of NEP (New Excellent Product) certificates will be expanded to include new industry sectors such as future cars, raw materials, parts and equipment segments, and medical instruments.

KATS will support formal permits for “regulation sandbox” products and the market release of new industry convergence products. The agency boosted financial support for new industry convergence products to 6.4 billion won, a 50 percent surge from 4.3 billion won in 2020.

As for improving fundamentals to cope with technology regulations, KATS makes efforts to improve fundamentals to cope with technology restrictions so as to give a shot in the arm to SMEs.

The government plans to establish a three-year comprehensive plan on responses to technology regulations between 2021 and 2023 to shore up industry policies, such as the 4th Industrial Revolution, Korean New Deal, and K-trade strategies and expand and regularize a comprehensive support center designed to address technical barriers to trade (TBT).

KATS increased the budget for ramping up capabilities to cope with TBT to 7 billion won in 2021, a 41 percent jump over 4.9 billion won in 2020.

The government will purse regulatory reform toward lumps of regulations. It will explore and ease grieves and complaints so that companies can sense regulator reform and meet their high demand for reform.

KATS Administrator Lee Seung-woo said, “As countries are fiercely competing to secure an upper hand in the non-contact, post-COVID-19 pandemic era, the year 2021 will be the first year in which Korea will make a paradigm shift into a leading economy through digital innovation and carbon neutrality strategies.”

KATS will support the implementation of polices through the establishment of standardization strategies corresponding to industry policies and concentrate its all capabilities to give a shot in the arm to corporate activities and enhance international competitiveness, he added.