The National Growth Fund, which will invest 150 trillion won in advanced industries over the next five years, plans to manage more than 30 trillion won next year to support advanced strategic industries, venture innovation companies, scale-ups, and regional growth. The government announced this plan during the Industrial Competitiveness Enhancement Ministers’ Meeting and Growth Strategy TF Meeting held on the 16th.
The fund will support infrastructure such as equipment supply, facility construction, and energy generation and transmission for advanced strategic industries like semiconductors, secondary batteries, vaccines, displays, hydrogen, future cars, bio, AI, defense, and robots, as well as industries necessary for future strategies and economic security like content and key minerals. Mega projects with significant industry impact will be identified and supported through a comprehensive package involving regulations, taxation, finance, and workforce development.
Direct investments will involve participating in capital increases for SMEs and mid-sized companies that find it difficult to obtain market-based loans or low-interest loans, or in capital increases for special purpose companies for large-scale factory expansions. The Advanced Strategic Industry Fund will directly invest in equity, working with private financial institutions for capital increases or M&A. The fund will operate with 1.5 trillion won from the fund and 1.5 trillion won from private capital, totaling 3 trillion won.
Indirect investments will involve creating large-scale funds jointly with private capital from banks, pension funds, and retirement funds to execute equity investments aligned with policy objectives. Selected private fund managers will use their expertise to invest in fostering advanced industries and meeting the policy goals of individual sub-funds. The scale will be 1.5 trillion won from the fund and 5.5 trillion won from private capital, totaling 7 trillion won.