The South Korean government has pledged to spend USD 7bn on public projects this year, a figure that will include blockchain spending.
The money will back what ministers have labeled the “Korean New Deal,” and particularly what they have called the “core” of the measures, the “Digital New Deal,” which will receive billions of dollars’ worth of further investment in the years up to 2025, create almost a million new jobs and foster Industry 4.0 sectors.
Per Gvalley News, Seoul has prioritized technology advances such as AI, contact-free developments and digital learning. Many of the projects it has announced it will be backing will likely make use of blockchain technology-powered innovations – including contact-free fisheries payment platforms, logistics, IoT and small and medium-sized business funding projects.
Seoul also said it would up its spending on government-run services that make use of blockchain technology, moving to bolster initiatives such as the police force’s mobile phone-based, card-free digital drivers’ license project.
In a separate development, South Korea’s SME minister, an outspoken proponent of blockchain and its role in bolstering small businesses, has again talked up the technology.
Per Money Today, the minister, Park Young-sun, spoke about her desire to foster tech unicorn firms and predicted that 2021 would see firms that are focused on blockchain and AI obtain unicorn status.
She added that Busan, the city that is the site of the country’s only blockchain regulation-free zone, would develop a “protocol-based” economy with decentralization and de-monopolized values at its cores using its new blockchain advances.
Park added that she regretted her failure to win her 2018 bid to become the Mayor of Seoul, particularly as she had been hoping to introduce a digital currency for use in the capital as one of her main manifesto pledges.
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