S.Korea to elevate science minister to deputy prime minister to lead in AI race

South Korea will elevate its new science minister to a deputy ministerial post, giving him authority to serve as the top coordinator of the government’s R&D policy as part of President Lee Jae-myung's pledge to support the country in becoming one of the world's top three AI powers.

According to officials from the administration and ruling Democratic Party on Thursday, the upcoming minister of Science and ICT will take over most of the authority of reviewing and allocating the national R&D budget, a role currently held by the Ministry of Economy and Finance.

Including the elevation of the science minister’s role, South Korea’s National Policy Planning Committee recently submitted a government reorganization plan to the presidential office.

If approved, it would mark the first creation of a deputy prime minister role for a science minister in 17 years, making the position one of the top five administrative posts following the president, prime minister and other deputy ministers.

The move comes as the government seeks to boost R&D spending to more than 5% of total expenditures to revitalize the economy through technology-driven growth.

To support the plan, Democratic Party lawmaker Hwang Jung-ah, a member of the National Policy Planning Committee, introduced a bill this week to revise existing law, mandating that R&D spending exceed 5% of the total government budget.

The decision to elevate the new science minister to deputy prime minister appears aimed at strengthening the leadership of Science Minister Nominee Bae Kyung-hoon, head of LG AI Research.

He is expected to focus policy efforts on building AI infrastructure, nurturing AI talent and developing sovereign AI technology.

Demonstrating his commitment to leading the AI race, Lee has nominated the 48-year-old AI expert as minister of Science and ICT. He also tapped Ha Jung-woo, head of Naver Cloud’s AI Innovation Center, as the new presidential secretary for AI future planning.

Baek and Ha, both in their 40s, were eye-catching nominations because they are relatively young compared with other career bureaucrats and have no prior government experience. The appointments have raised doubts about their ability as heads of the government initiatives.

Given their authority over planning and executing the country's R&D budget, the two AI specialists are expected to advance science and technology initiatives without being frustrated by economic bureaucracy.

Lagging behind the US and China in the AI race, South Korea seeks to form a 100 trillion won ($73 billion) fund backed by public, private and government investment.

“Under President Lee Jae-myung’s vision, the deputy prime minister for science will develop concrete plans to make South Korea one of the top three AI powers,” said a government official.

To consolidate fragmented AI policies, some in government have also suggested transferring the Venture Policy Bureau of the Ministry of SMEs and Startups and the Industrial AI Innovation Division of the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy to the Ministry of Science and ICT.

Science and technology industries welcome the proposed elevation of the science minister's status.

“We hope the new science and technology deputy prime minister will be a powerful figure who can coordinate future strategic technologies under the Lee administration,” said a science and technology industry expert, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Write to Jeong-Min Nam, Sung-Soo Bae, Young-Hyo Jeong, Hyung-Chang Choi and Hyung-Gyo Seo at peux@hankyung.com

Yeonhee Kim edited this article.