NSTC Maps Out Korea's Future R&D

Inaugurated to integrate and coordinate divergent R&D outlays; charged with enhancing national R&D activities's efficiency and efficacy




KKorea has seesawed around the $20,000 barrier in the nation’s per capita income for the last several years. The nation should come up a vision to realize the per capita income of $40,000.
In the past, the five-year science and technology development plan was based on an integrating of the tasks each ministry would implement, but it lacked the continuity of its policy direction. The Korea National Science and Technology Commission (NSTC) has recently been inaugurated with a new mission of mapping development plans out by making the most of the nation’s strong points, accumulated in the course of industrialization.
“The NSTC will strive to contribute to the development of the Korean science and technology fields by creating new technologies and values to help the nation take another leap forward and cope with such future issues as environment, energy and natural disasters,” said NSTC’s Secretary General Lee Chang-han. “First of all, the NSTC will suggest a grand vision of science and technology and implementation strategies to drive the nation’s future development by predicting and analyzing economic and social changes in Korea and abroad for the next 20 to 30 years,” he added.
“Korea, China, Japan and Germany have similar industrial structures, so Korea should shift into advanced parts and value-added service industries in order to survive in the markets of a general commodity,” he said.
The following are excerpts from an interview between News World reporter and the NSTC secretary-general, who touched on the nation’s overall policies on the field of domestic science and technology, including the purpose of the establishment of the NSTC.

Question: Please tell us how you feel about your inauguration as a secretary-general of the NSTC and the organization’s future plans.
Answer: It is a great honor and I feel a great sense of responsibility as the first secretary-general of the NSTC, which has been inaugurated as one of the standing committees under the direct control of the president in accordance with the domestic science and technology community’s demand for establishing the control and planning tower of national science and technology.
As the secretary-general, I devote myself to stabilizing the operations of the NSTC. I will hire field experts to maximize expertise in the establishment of policies, budgetary coordination and evaluation, while striving to ensure solidarity with staff members who were from several different ministries.

Question: Will you explain the purpose of the NSTC?
Answer: In 2008, the government consolidated the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Science and Technology into one to have synergetic effects, but too many pending educational issues have hindered the implementation of science and technology policies.
In particular, as the national R&D outlays have surpassed 15 trillion won since the inauguration of the current government, a consensus has built up that there is a need for efficient and strategic management of the budget.
But the now defunct National Science Technology Council, a non-standing advisory group, had limited functions, and its secretariat, which was established within the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (MEST), raised questions over neutrality in its comprehensive coordination.
For this reason, reflecting the domestic science and technology community’s views on the necessity of establishing a national coordination body in the field of science and technology, the NSTC was newly inaugurated as a regular commission under the direct control of the president on March 28, 2011.

Question: Will you elaborate on the NSTC’s roles and tasks?
Answer: The NSTC will strive to contribute to the development of the field of science and technology in Korea through encouraging new technologies and values to help the nation take another leap forward and address such future issues as environment, energy and natural disasters.
First of all, the NSTC will suggest a grand vision of science and technology and implementation strategies to drive the nation’s future development by predicting and analyzing economic and social changes in Korea and abroad for the next 20 to 30 years.
We will build a cooperation and coordination regime to maximize R&D outcomes by strategically considering the government and the private sector’s respective roles in R&D functions and revamping inter-ministry overlapping and inefficiencies in order to maximize the efficiency and efficacy of national R&D investments.
The NSTC plans to escalate the nation’s R&D capacity by encouraging “openness and cooperation” among government agencies, between the central and provincial governments, and among industries, academia and research circles, and to build a flexible and productive science and technology research system.
We strive to listen to the voices from the research fields and collect experts’ views by taking an open-minded attitude so as to carry out the NSTC’s functions in a superb way while accelerating the revamping of systems in order to ensure a virtuous cycle of establishing national science and technology policies, distributing R&D outlays and evaluating R&D outcomes.




President Lee Myung-bak applauds as National Science and Technology Commission Chairman Kim Do-yeon looks on at a ceremony to hang the signboard of the newly inaugurated organization in Seoul on April 7.

Question: Please explain the current operation of the NSTC and its departments.
Answer: The NSTC is operated by 10 commissioners, including the chairman and two standing commissioners, who deliberate topics and make decisions.
Under the umbrella of the NSTC is the Steering Committee, manned by experts and ranking officials from ministries, which will give a preview of agendas before they are put to the NSTC, provide consulting and perform duties delegated to the commission.
The commission has eight expert committees, comprised of field experts, which will give an in-depth review of and plan topics in such areas as policy coordination, intellectual property, evaluation, green technology, life/welfare, future growth and industrial foundation. Sub-committees will be inaugurated and operated temporarily to take up detailed technology and timely issues so as to maximize the efficiency and specialization of R&D activities.
The NSTC also runs its secretariat to back up its operation and the implementation of tasks, which has the Operation Support Department, the Planning & Management Director-General’s Office, the Science and Technology Policy Bureau, the R&D Coordination Bureau and the Outcome Management Bureau.

Question: Does a revision bill on the act on the assessment of R&D outcomes, still pending at the National Assembly, stand in the way of the NSTC’s activities?
Answer: It is a sad thing that the NSTC has been inaugurated without the legislation of the law. We attach top priority on obtaining the National Assembly’s approval of the act so that the commission can perform the evaluation of R&D outcomes, a key factor in coordinating national R&D projects.
I expect the National Assembly to pass the act at the earliest date since the parliament concurs on the necessity of the authority over the evaluation of R&D outcomes extended to the commission.
The NSTC is now consulting with the Ministry of Strategy and Finance (MOSF) on exploring ways for the former to participate in the evaluation of government-financed R&D projects from May before the National Assembly passes the law. The results of the upcoming evaluation will be likely reflected in the government’s budgetary deliberations for its R&D projects for next year, and we will do our utmost in seeing to it that the R&D evaluation, budgetary allocation and coordination can be linked seamlessly.

Question: How can the NSTC coordinate with the MOSF as to the latter’s authority over budgetary allocation?
Answer: The range of the NSTC’s allocation and coordination of a government-financed R&D budget is clarified in the implementation decrees of the Framework Act on Science and Technology as a result of consultations with the MOSF and other related ministries.
According to them, the NSTC is charged with budgetary allocation and coordination of mid- and long-term mega national R&D projects lasting more than five years, future growth engine projects, basic and original technology research projects and similar and overlapping projects among the several different ministries, with the exception of government-financed R&D projects related to the defense, humanities and social science fields.
The NSTC plans to operate a consultation committee with the MOSF to strengthen the connectivity for smooth budget deliberation, allocation/coordination and budget compilation so that differences of views between the two organizations that may arise in the course of budgetary deliberation can be ironed out in the fullest fashion.

Question: Will you comment on the tasks to advance the National R&D Institutes (“Governance” issues)?
Answer: “Governance issues” have been debated on several occasions, but final conclusion has yet to be reached. It is desirable to make a decision on the issue at the earliest possible date as long as government-financed R&D bodies play pivotal roles in state R&D activities.
The NSTC will redouble efforts to reach agreement on the issue of governance after proactively discussing it with the MEST, the Ministry of Knowledge Economy and other related ministries.
To this end, we will work out an action plan in the second half of this year by operating an expert task force on the major pending issues that have been so far debated and by holding consultations with the related ministries. nw


Photos on Courtesy of NewsWorld, the MCST