The Korean government and three major Korean shipbuilders — HD Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering (KSOE), Samsung Heavy Industries, and Hanwha Ocean — will invest 9 trillion won to secure future super-wide gap technologies for the Korean shipbuilding industry.

The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE) announced on March 5 that it has launched the K-Shipbuilding Next Generation Initiative, a platform for government-public-private cooperation, in order to discuss the direction of the Korean shipbuilding industry’s transformation and to review export and current strategies in the Korean shipbuilding industry.

At the first meeting of the Next Generation Korean Shipbuilding Initiative, the Korean government, the three major Korean shipbuilders and the Korea Offshore & Shipbuilding Association signed a joint response agreement to secure super-wide gap technological competitiveness for the Korean shipbuilding industry. Through the agreement, the Korean government and the three Korean shipbuilders agreed to invest 9 trillion won over the next five years to secure super-wide gap technologies in shipbuilding.

In order to secure next-generation technologies from a mid- to long-term perspective, the public-private sector will jointly set up a road map for super-wide gap R&D in the shipbuilding industry in the first half of this year.

Based on this, it will develop the world’s first liquefied hydrogen carrier by 2030 and lead international standards on autonomous sailing ships.

The government will also establish a system to forecast the supply and demand of human resources. It will train 2,000 Korean shipbuilding professionals and production workers every year through the Future Innovation Human Resources Development Center and a training program for job seekers.

In this regard, the three shipbuilding companies will jointly pilot the Overseas Shipbuilding Human Resources Cooperation Center in the first half of this year to secure a system to train overseas workers locally and bring them to Korea.

The Korean government also decided to set up investment desks and field desks at the Korea Offshore & Shipbuilding Association and five regions nationwide after reviewing strategies to increase order intake and exports with the Korean shipbuilding industry at the meeting.

“Challenges facing the Korean shipbuilding industry must be overcome by teamwork of the public and private sectors beyond the level of individual companies,” said Ahn Duk-geun, minister of trade, industry and energy. “The Korean shipbuilding industry’s roles are vital to helping Corporate Korea attain US$700 billion in exports this year.”

Source: BusinessKorea