This past June Mr. Park Yoon Kyu, Chief of the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Industry Division of the South Korean Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning took to the stage at the Inside 3D Printing Conference and Expo in Seoul to announce that the Korean government was about to get behind 3D printing in a big way. In his talk he outlined plans to build an infrastructure and educate the people necessary to allow Korea to contribute to, and compete in, the 3D printing marketplace.
At that time he said that by this fall the government would be opening several educational centers to train business leaders and teachers in this new technology and provide appropriate curricula to universities and public schools to help educate succeeding generations. He also mentioned that by 2016, some 1,600 Korean public schools would be provided with 3D printers for student use, though he didn’t specify what type of printer, or who would be providing them.
Those plans have now become a little more concrete as representatives of the South Korean government have announced they are drawing up a 10-year plan to promote and develop 3D printing into a new growth market, and transform Korean manufacturing. The inaugural meeting of the ‘3D Printing Strategy Technology Road-map’ group met at The-K Hotel in downtown Seoul last week. This meeting was viewed as a follow-up measure to the ‘3D Printing Industry Development Strategy’ discussion that was held by the National Science & Technology Council this past April.
The announcement laid out how this country’s Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning as well as the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy have all been tasked to gather feedback and information from industry insiders, as well as members of the public, and to develop a clear plan and set of goals for the implementation of 3D printing technologies for Korea…and it is to be ready by this October.
The General Committee will be divided into 4 subcommittees each charged with a single topic; equipment, material, software, or applications. Members will be experts picked from related academic institutes, research institutes and private corporations. The committees will investigate and analyze each tech category’s demand, as well as the environmental changes to industry, now and in the foreseeable future. Afterwards, the committee will establish phased technology procurement strategies for the next ten years.
During the first five years of the program, the planners will put emphasis on specific mile markers associated with the automotive, medical and electronics industries. For the following five years, the planners will be developing in more generic directions based on the then known forecasts of future demand.
Since the end of last year, budget plans have asked the government to donate some 15,000,000,000 Korean Won (~$15 million USD) for the development of 3D printing technology. The Korean National Assembly, realizing the importance of 3D printing has expanded the budget allocations to 26,000,000,000 Korean Won (~26 million USD) for the first five years of the plan.
In its statement, the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning noted that the 3D market is currently dominated by a handful of global companies that own the core technologies, and though a few South Korean firms hold their own technologies; their competitive edge in the sector is still blunt compared with the globally leading companies. It added that a plan spearheaded by the government was necessary to better coordinate research efforts being conducted at the nation’s various universities and institutions.
In addition, according to the Yonhap News Agency, the ministry said it is planning to deploy 3D printers at 227 libraries and 5,885 schools across the country by 2017, and is planning on training 10 million South Koreans to use 3D printers by 2020…that’s nearly one sixth of the country’s total population.
“The 3D printing industry is a new growth engine to bring about innovation in the manufacturing realm,” Lee Kwan-seok, an official from the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, told Yonhap News yesterday. He also said: “[3D printing] is anticipated to take a key role in the country’s creative economy drive by converging with the ICT sector.”
The South Korean government has been actively pursuing its Creative Economy drive, which refers to moves that seek new and inventive business opportunities, as well as more jobs, through the fusion of information technology and other industries as one of its main policies.
