Ministry of Trade Industry and Resources

MOTIR Shapes Blueprint for 5+3 Regional Growth Engines

The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Resources (MOTIR, Minister JK Kim) held the Growth Engine Strategy Forum for the Five Mega-Regions and Three Special Self-Governing Provinces (5+3) framework on June 10, 2026, at the Artificial Intelligence Industry Cluster Agency (AICA) in Gwangju. Chaired by Vice Minister Moon Shin-hak, the forum brought together about 100 regional industry stakeholders from Gwangju and Jeonnam, including local government officials and representatives of anchor companies and regional innovation institutions. The forum gathered views on industries proposed by local governments in each region as regional growth engines under the framework. Participants discussed each region’s industrial conditions and growth potential and explored development approaches tailored to regional strengths. Beginning with the forum for the Southwest region, MOTIR plans to hold similar forums across all regions covered by the framework, excluding the Seoul metropolitan area. Under the framework, the regional growth engine initiative positions each growth engine as a core industry for its region and supports balanced national growth through a more polycentric industrial structure. MOTIR plans to work closely with local governments to facilitate large-scale investment by anchor companies. The government also plans to draw on policy tools across ministries and provide substantial incentives for major regional investment projects through a seven-part support package covering fiscal support, financing, workforce development, infrastructure, and regulatory exemptions. At the forum, experts from the Korea Institute for Industrial Economics & Trade (KIET) presented an analysis of the industries that local governments submitted as candidate growth engines. Participants examined each industry in detail, including regional industrial conditions, corporate investment plans, future growth potential, and alignment with Korea’s national industrial strategy. The Gwangju Institute also presented its assessment of the Southwest region’s industrial landscape and development priorities, followed by a discussion on industrial development priorities for Gwangju and Jeonnam from a regional expert perspective. In a panel discussion moderated by Professor Na Ju-mong, President of the Korean Association of Regional Policy (KARP), panelists from anchor companies, local governments, and regional innovation institutions discussed proposals for developing Gwangju and Jeonnam’s growth engine industries. Kim Hee-sam, Vice President at Kia Corporation, said, “Kia plans to continue investing in its Gwangju Plant as part of the regional growth engine initiative. Policy and financial support from the government will be needed to strengthen the automotive industry ecosystem in the Southwest region.” Kim Young-moon, Gwangju’s Deputy Mayor for Culture and Economy, said, “Gwangju will continue strengthening communication and cooperation between the central and local governments to support the success of these growth engines.” In his opening remarks, Vice Minister Moon said, “This forum will mark the first step in reshaping the geography of Korea’s industrial growth around a polycentric structure built on the Five Mega-Regions and Three Special Self-Governing Provinces.” He added, “MOTIR will identify and develop high-potential growth engines that build on each region’s strengths. We will use every available policy tool to help each region build a self-sustaining, competitive industrial ecosystem.” After consulting regions under the framework, MOTIR plans to select growth engines for each region and announce a seven-part policy support package to develop them into globally competitive industries. The package will cover fiscal support, tax incentives, financing, workforce development, technology support, infrastructure, and regulatory exemptions. date2026-06-10

Growth Engine Strategy Forum for Five Mega-Regions and Three Special Self-Governing Provinces

Vice Minister Moon Shin-hak of the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Resources (MOTIR) attended the Growth Engine Strategy Forum for the Five Mega-Regions and Three Special Self-Governing Provinces on June 10, 2026, at the Artificial Intelligence Industry Cluster Agency (AICA) in Gwangju. The forum brought together about 100 regional industry stakeholders from Gwangju and Jeonnam, including representatives from the Korea Institute for Advancement of Technology (KIAT), the Korea Institute for Industrial Economics & Trade (KIET), local governments, regional anchor companies, and regional innovation institutions. Participants gathered views on regional growth engines and discussed development approaches tailored to each region’s strengths. Vice Minister Moon said MOTIR will identify and develop high-potential growth engines that build on each region’s strengths and use all available policy tools to help each region build a self-sustaining, competitive industrial ecosystem. date2026-06-10

Korea to Build Secure System for Storing and Using Manufacturing Data, a Key Strategic Asset in the AI Era

High-quality manufacturing data and the infrastructure to store and use it are essential to successful AI transformation in manufacturing. The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Resources (MOTIR, Minister JK Kim) held the third M.AX (Manufacturing AI Transformation) Expert Conference on June 5, 2026, to mark the administration’s first anniversary. The conference brought together manufacturing AI experts from industry, academia, and research institutions under the theme “Manufacturing Data, AI Models, and Infrastructure: The Keys to Successful M.AX.” Participants discussed the role of manufacturing data in M.AX and the AI models and infrastructure needed to secure and use high-quality data. Progress to Date As global AI competition intensifies, the success of M.AX depends on close cooperation among manufacturers, AI companies, academia, and research organizations. Korea’s world-class manufacturers and the high-quality data they hold are strategic assets in making the country a global leader in M.AX. The government is working to build a win-win environment and infrastructure needed for manufacturers and AI companies to develop manufacturing AI models that can be deployed directly at production sites. MOTIR is working through the M.AX Alliance, which brings together more than 1,500 manufacturers, AI companies, universities, and research organizations across 11 divisions, to secure manufacturing data and build an ecosystem for its use. The AI Factory Division is establishing a basis for using manufacturing process data through the AI factory project, which applies AI to manufacturing processes to improve productivity. It is also pursuing R&D to develop industry-specific foundation models and, through a new tacit-knowledge AI model project launched in June 2026, will accumulate data capturing the know-how of skilled workers across industries and processes. The AI Robotics Division is selecting flagship tasks where humanoids can be deployed and collecting motion data generated during development and demonstrations. The Autonomous Ship Division launched an AI data platform project in May 2026 to build infrastructure for securing real-world operational data from about 6,000 voyages, while the AI Future Mobility Division has begun developing a data pipeline to collect and process driving data alongside autonomous driving development and demonstrations. Plans Ahead Manufacturing data often contains critical intellectual property (IP), including core technologies and production know-how, as well as sensitive business information. Companies that provide such data therefore have strong concerns about possible leaks. To address this, MOTIR will build a manufacturing data library that will securely store, manage, and use data provided for follow-up R&D projects. Because the library will hold high-quality manufacturing data, MOTIR will put in place dedicated safeguards and procedures to prevent leaks and maintain security. Data may be used only in an isolated clean room and may not be taken outside, while access will be subject to a separate, strict review process. Until the manufacturing data library is completed, MOTIR is using the Manufacturing AI Solution Development Support Center, operated by the Korea Electronics Technology Institute (KETI), as an interim hub. Since May 2026, the ministry has been storing data collected through the AI factory project and other initiatives at the center. Using this data, MOTIR plans to develop a prototype manufacturing AI foundation model by the end of 2026 and work with M.AX Alliance participants to test its field application and performance. It will also continue securing product data and developing product AI models. The AI Robotics Division will collect robot behavior and training data through industrial-site demonstrations and the planned robot data factory, while the Autonomous Ship Division will link real-world voyage data, data already h date2026-06-05

Minister Yeo Holds Roundtable with Ulsan Exporters

Minister for Trade Yeo Han-koo of the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Resources (MOTIR, Minister JK Kim) chaired a roundtable with Ulsan exporters in Ulsan on May 29, 2026. The meeting was attended by representatives from local companies, including Hanjoo Light Metal, YK-INPRO E&C, and LIHAON. After delivering opening remarks, Minister Yeo discussed production conditions, export trends, and business concerns among major companies in Ulsan. Minister Yeo said MOTIR will continue helping local and small businesses enter export markets and provide sustained support for promising SMEs with the potential to play a central role in Korea’s exports. date2026-06-01

Minister Yeo Visits HD Hyundai Electric and Meets with Power Equipment Exporters

Minister for Trade Yeo Han-koo of the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Resources (MOTIR, Minister JK Kim) visited HD Hyundai Electric in Ulsan on May 29, 2026, to support continued growth in Korea’s exports. During the visit, Minister Yeo toured key production lines, including transformer lines, and met with executives and officials from power equipment exporters, including HD Hyundai, Sam Dong, and Inheung Industries. They discussed government support for expanding Korean power equipment exports. date2026-06-01

Trade Minister Reviews Export Operations for Korea’s Leading Electrical Equipment Industry

Korea’s exports topped USD 80.0 billion in both March and April 2026, marking new export milestones. In particular, Korean electrical equipment exports are expected to reach a record high in 2026 as global demand grows, driven by AI infrastructure expansion, green energy transition policies, and replacement demand for aging U.S. power grids. Marking the administration’s first anniversary, Minister for Trade Yeo Han-koo of the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Resources (MOTIR, Minister JK Kim) visited HD Hyundai Electric on May 29, 2026. During the visit, Minister Yeo reviewed the company’s export operations and met with the electrical equipment industry to hear directly from companies and discuss government support for expanding Korean electrical equipment exports. At the roundtable, participating companies asked MOTIR to help stabilize supply chains, including those for raw and subsidiary materials, and support continued business operations and exports amid global uncertainty. MOTIR will provide wide-ranging support to help Korean industries, including electrical equipment, sustain export growth. In 2026, the ministry will expand trade insurance to a record KRW 275.0 trillion, including KRW 114.0 trillion for SMEs and middle-market companies, to support balanced growth between large companies and smaller firms. MOTIR will also provide KRW 127.0 trillion over the next five years in financing, performance guarantees, and other support for medium- to long-term, large-scale projects in areas such as nuclear power, defense, and electrical equipment. For electrical equipment, MOTIR will help Korean companies win energy infrastructure projects worldwide by identifying opportunities, matching companies with projects, and arranging early financing as demand rises from AI data centers and other sources. “Even amid global uncertainty, Korea’s electrical equipment industry continues to lead global markets with highly competitive technologies,” Minister Yeo said. “The government will expand trade finance and utilize trade channels with major economies to help Korean companies expand their global reach.” Minister Yeo also met with local Ulsan companies, including Hanjoo Light Metal, INPRO E&C, LIHAON, Colorant Corea, Yetgan, ECOCAB, and Rinno Aluminum, at a working lunch to hear their business concerns. He highlighted that the government will continue supporting local and small businesses as they take their first steps into export markets and provide sustained support for promising SMEs to become key contributors to Korea’s exports. date2026-05-29

Third General Meeting of the AI Home Appliance M.AX Alliance

Choi Woo-hyuk, Director General for High Technology Industry at the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Resources (MOTIR), attended the third general meeting of the AI Home Appliance M.AX Alliance at Electronics Hall in Mapo-gu, Seoul, on May 28, 2026. The meeting brought together about 80 participants from home appliance, component, and AI companies, including Samsung Electronics, LG Electronics, and Coway, as well as universities and specialized institutions. Director General Choi said AI transformation across the manufacturing ecosystem is essential for staying competitive and that MOTIR will support the home appliance industry in advancing product intelligence and AI-based manufacturing transformation together. date2026-05-29

K-Home Appliance Industry to Tackle Challenges with M.AX

The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Resources (MOTIR, Minister JK Kim) held the third general meeting of the Home Appliance M.AX Alliance at Electronics Hall on May 28, 2026. The meeting brought together Choi Woo-hyuk, MOTIR’s Director General for High Technology Industry, and about 80 representatives from Alliance companies and institutions. Launched in September 2025 to help transform Korea’s manufacturing ecosystem, the M.AX Alliance is changing industrial sites across the country. Since its launch with 10 divisions, the Alliance added the Industrial Complex AX Division in February 2026 and has grown into an industry-academia-research network of more than 1,500 companies and institutions across 11 divisions. AI adoption through the Alliance is helping raise manufacturing productivity by shortening production times and improving quality, while also supporting the development of technologies and components for AX products, including robotic hands. The Home Appliance M.AX Alliance has also maintained close communication with participating companies and institutions, focusing on innovative AI products and AI home appliance standards to strengthen the global competitiveness of Korea’s home appliance industry. As supply chain uncertainty grows amid the Middle East conflict and global competitors are closing the gap quickly, the industry faces an increasingly difficult operating environment. The government and industry plan to use the Alliance as a platform to advance AI-based manufacturing transformation, product innovation, and standard-setting. At the meeting, MOTIR announced three major tasks under Home Appliance M.AX to use AI to significantly improve productivity and strengthen innovation across Korea’s home appliance industry. The first task is to develop manufacturing AI models tailored to the specific needs of home appliance production sites. As consumer preferences become more diverse, mixed-model production, where multiple products are produced on a single line, has become essential. MOTIR will develop AI models that enable automated guided vehicles (AGVs), autonomous mobile robots (AMRs), and AI systems to manage production and logistics schedules in response to frequent line changes. Starting with key suppliers in major home appliance production hubs, including Gwangju and Changwon, the ministry will expand AI adoption across small and mid-sized home appliance companies. The goal is to help companies respond quickly and flexibly to orders for a wider range of products. The second task is to build training datasets and common development infrastructure to support the development of innovative AI home appliances. To systematically collect public AI training datasets that are difficult for individual companies to secure on their own, MOTIR will begin surveying Alliance participants in May 2026 and reflect their input in a roadmap for building these datasets. In the second half of 2026, the ministry will conduct a pilot collection of three types of AI training data, including food ingredient images and voice command corpora, before expanding the scope and scale of data collection from 2027 in line with industry and technology trends. MOTIR will also develop and supply common modules, including standard hardware and software development kits for AI home appliances, and open an AI home appliance life-cycle support center in Yongsan in July 2026. The center will support companies from product design to prototype production, helping ease the financial and technical burden on small and mid-sized companies. Third, to build trust in the AI home appliance market, the Korean Agency for Technology and Standards (KATS) will prepare draft Korean Industrial Standards (KS) by the end of 2026 on areas such as technology grades for AI home appliances and inter-device security. MOTIR will also identify relevant policy support measures and link them to these standards to protect co date2026-05-28

Korea Highlights Crisis Management and Growth Opportunities in First-Year Policy Review

On the first anniversary of the launch of the People’s Sovereignty Government, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Resources (MOTIR, Minister JK Kim) reviewed its policy record over the past year and presented five key achievements. The past year was marked by overlapping crises. Global trade uncertainty and risks to energy and resource supplies from the Middle East weighed on the real economy; global oversupply put key industries, including petrochemicals, under pressure to restructure; and competition for global industrial leadership intensified around AI. MOTIR managed these risks closely while moving decisively to capture future growth opportunities. In November 2025, Korea concluded the Korea–U.S. tariff deal after months of sustained negotiations guided by a clear national-interest-first principle, reducing uncertainty for exporters. The agreement eased tariff burdens on key U.S.-bound exports, including automobiles and pharmaceuticals, and secured semiconductor treatment no less favorable than that of major competitors. Korea also laid the groundwork for strategic industry cooperation with the United States through the Korea–U.S. Strategic Investment MOU, Korea–U.S. shipbuilding cooperation under MASGA, and the Special Act on U.S.-Bound Investment. For the petrochemical industry, MOTIR moved early to restructure the sector and prevent its difficulties from spreading to regional economies. The ministry approved the first restructuring project between HD Hyundai Chemical and Lotte Chemical in Daesan and backed its implementation with more than KRW 2.1 trillion in financing, tax incentives, and regulatory streamlining. The Special Act on Strengthening and Supporting the Competitiveness of the Petrochemical Industry also created a legal basis for restructuring and a shift toward higher-value products. Following the outbreak of the war in the Middle East, the government and industry activated a coordinated public-private response to stabilize supplies of crude oil, naphtha, and other key materials, minimizing disruption to the real economy and people’s daily lives. By May 2026, Korea had secured crude oil and naphtha imports at around 90 percent of the 2025 level, reduced the share of Middle Eastern crude in total crude imports from 70 percent to around 50 percent, and helped restore petrochemical operating rates to about 75 percent. Despite trade and Middle East-related risks, Korea stepped up export support, with exports reaching a record USD 709.3 billion in 2025. Korea became the sixth country in the world to surpass $700 billion in annual exports. Exports have remained on an upward path in 2026, reaching a record $306.5 billion through April, up 40.9 percent year-on-year, putting Korea’s first entry into the world’s top five exporters increasingly within reach. Korea also broadened its export base through emerging-market diversification, growth in K-consumer goods exports, win-win trade finance, preferential loans for exporters, and the launch of K-Export Star 500. Foreign direct investment reached a record $36.1 billion in 2025. Finally, MOTIR began accelerating AI transformation in manufacturing. The ministry launched the Manufacturing AI Transformation (M.AX) Alliance to drive change across Korea’s manufacturing ecosystem. Within about eight months, participation grew to around 1,500 companies and institutions. In 2026, MOTIR will promote 100 new AI factories by applying AI to manufacturing processes in 12 key industries, including semiconductors and shipbuilding, and plans to deploy more than 200 by year-end. The ministry is also expanding AX across processes, products, and regions by operating the Industrial Complex AX Division, linking 10 AX demonstration industrial complexes with regional universities, and developing technologies and core components for AX products such as autonomous vehicles and humanoids. date2026-05-28

Roundtable with Shipbuilding Equipment Suppliers and Small and Medium-Sized Shipbuilders

Minister JK (Jung-Kwan) Kim of the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Resources (MOTIR) chaired a roundtable with shipbuilding equipment suppliers and small and medium-sized shipbuilders at Hanla IMS in Busan on May 27, 2026. Minister Kim delivered opening remarks and listened to industry challenges and policy suggestions. Participants included Kim Young-gu, CEO of Hanla IMS; Lee Min-geol, CEO of PANASIA; Kim Dong-geon, CEO of DongHwa Entec; Yoo Sang-cheol, CEO of HJ Shipbuilding & Construction; Youn Seog-Bong, CEO of Woori Marine; Lee Young-il, CEO of DTEC; and Choo Jin-hun, head of division at the Korea Marine Equipment Research Institute (KOMERI), along with representatives from shipbuilding equipment suppliers, small and medium-sized shipbuilders, and related institutions. Minister Kim said shipbuilding equipment suppliers and small and medium-sized shipbuilders form the foundation of the K-shipbuilding supply chain and are critical to Korea’s maritime security, adding that MOTIR will respond swiftly to on-the-ground needs, including equipment demonstrations, super-gap technology development, and order opportunities. date2026-05-27