SEOUL, May 22 (Xinhua) -- South Korean President Moon Jae-in said Wednesday that his government will foster the biotechnology and pharmaceutical sectors as the country's new economic growth driver, aiming to triple the export and the global market share of pharmaceutical products and medical instruments by 2030.
Moon made the remark during his ninth "regional economic tour" to Osong, North Chungcheong province located at the center of the country, which is home to biotech-related research centers and institutions. Moon started the tour since October last year to find new growth engines amid the lackluster export.
South Korea's export kept falling for five months through April amid the global economic slump and the downturn in business cycle of the global chip industry.
The Moon government picked non-memory chips, future-generation vehicles and the biohealth industry as its three new growth drivers. Osong is the country's first biotech and pharmaceutical cluster to achieve the initiative.
"The era will come soon when the pharmaceutical and biotech industries lead our economy," said Moon who vowed to treble the export and the global market share of South Korean pharmaceutical products and medical instruments by 2030.
Under the initiative, the biohealth export is required to rise to 50 billion U.S. dollars by 2030 from 14.4 billion dollars as of 2018. The global market share is required to increase from 1.8 percent to 6 percent in the same period.
