The Ministry of Science and ICT (Minister Lee Jong-ho) will increase its total budget for 2023 by 13% compared to this year and focus on securing strategic technologies for a super-gap in the era of technological hegemony competition and national digital innovation.

The Ministry of Science and ICT announced the 2023 budget plan on the 31st. According to this, the total amounted to 18.8 trillion won, an increase of 2.3% compared to 2022.

Key strategic technologies such as semiconductors, nuclear power, and 6G amounted to 2.2106 trillion won, an increase of 12.9% compared to the previous year.

14 billion won was allocated as a new budget for 2023 for the activation of semiconductor design verification infrastructure, and the nano and materials technology development project was increased by 14.8 billion won to 251.1 billion won.

The AI semiconductor demonstration support project budget was increased by 8.4 billion won from the previous year to 12.5 billion won.

3.1 billion won has been newly allocated for the development of innovative small modular reactor (i-SMR) technology, and 29.1 billion won for research and development of core technologies for spent nuclear fuel, an increase of 1.7 billion won compared to the previous year.

The budget for 6G core technology development was increased by 1.9 billion won to 32.7 billion won.

To secure core technologies in advanced technology fields early through industry-academia-research collaboration, the budget for building quantum computing research infrastructure was increased by 2 billion won to 12 billion won, and 3.8 billion won was newly allocated for quantum computing-based quantum gain challenge research.

A budget of 117.3 billion won has also been allocated to lead mobility innovation through the early development of future modes of transportation and unmanned vehicles.

Of these, the Autonomous Driving Technology Development Innovation Project was increased by 8.9 billion won to 37.3 billion won, and the Next-Generation Autonomous Vehicle Communication Technology Development Project was increased by 4.3 billion won to 9.6 billion won.

The budget for the development of source technology for unmanned vehicles was increased by 400 million won to 25.6 billion won, and the budget for the development of stratospheric drones for continuous disaster monitoring was increased by 8.3 billion won to 12.3 billion won.


Support for technology innovation-driven talent development and basic research was increased by 6.8% from the previous year to 7.7813 trillion won, and support for the full-scale implementation of national digital innovation was increased by 9.5% from the previous year to 1.8939 trillion won.

The sector for the "Technology Diffusion for Everyone's Happiness," aimed at enhancing digital accessibility for vulnerable groups and establishing a safe ICT infrastructure, amounted to 6.6737 trillion won, an increase of 10.2% compared to the previous year.% increased.

The 2023 budget bill and fund management plan will be submitted to the National Assembly on September 2 after approval by the Cabinet, and will be amended and finalized during the regular session through preliminary review by the standing committee, main review by the Budget and Accounts Committee, and approval by the plenary session.

Minister of Science and ICT Lee Jong-ho stated, “In this budget proposal, we have focused on securing a super-gap in strategic technology fields where we are ahead, such as reinforcing outdated and gapped equipment at semiconductor research sites, promoting the development of next-generation small modular reactors, and striving for the world’s first 6G commercialization.” He added, “We will also concentrate our capabilities on the early establishment of a government digital platform so that simple and repetitive public tasks can be automated and private and public data can be interconnected to provide services to the public.”