South Korea's Ministry of Science and ICT drew up the Fifth Comprehensive Plan for Fostering R&D Special Zones (2026-2030), setting out the development direction for the next 5 years. It finalised the plan on April 10 after deliberation and approval at the 58th R&D Special Zones Committee meeting.

R&D special zones are key hubs that promote regional industry-academia-research R&D and support commercialisation of research results and entrepreneurship. There are currently 6 wide-area special zones including Daedeok, Gwangju, Daegu, Busan, North Jeolla and Gangwon, and 13 “strong” special zones designated as small, high-density innovation clusters centred on core technology institutions.

The plan is a statutory plan that applies to all zones under the Special Act on Fostering R&D Special Zones. The ministry established it through analysis of internal and external conditions and the current status of the zones, opinion-gathering including a public hearing, and consultations with related ministries.

The ministry set a vision of a “glocal innovation cluster of R&D special zones connecting regions and the world through science and technology innovation”. It will pursue 3 key policy tasks and 10 sub-tasks: creating and growing deeptech companies, upgrading the growth ecosystem and innovation-led growth of the zones.

To create deeptech companies, it will expand startups based on research results and strengthen step-by-step support. It will expand planning-type startup programmes that identify outstanding results from universities, science and technology institutes and government-funded research institutes, and support the establishment of research lab companies and early-stage startups. It will also strengthen tailored package support by stage for promising research lab companies, and expand regulatory special cases and fast-track programmes for new-technology demonstrations.

To upgrade the growth ecosystem, it will expand the investment base. It will create a 20 billion won First Deep Fund for early-stage startups and a 100 billion won Scale-up Fund for growth companies. It will foster talent based on regional demand and support people to settle in their regions.

It will build an AI-based integrated platform for technology commercialisation to automatically match research results with corporate demand and promote startups and commercialisation. It will also expand infrastructure such as convergence research innovation centres, demonstration infrastructure and commercialisation support facilities to build an end-to-end support environment linking research, commercialisation and growth.

To drive innovation-led growth in the zones, it will build a growth path that runs from strong to wide-area to global. Strong special zones will pursue functional expansion as hubs centred on specialised technologies. Wide-area special zones will be developed into clusters centred on ultra-wide regional cooperation, and at the global stage it will support a leap into national flagship innovation hubs. It will also build an ultra-wide regional system based on “5 poles and 3 specials” to strengthen cooperation among zones.

It will also introduce an evaluation system reflecting zone type and growth stage. It will apply differentiated block funding to top-performing wide-area special zones and consider incentives such as easing area limits for top-performing strong special zones.

The plan also includes specialised strategies for each wide-area and strong special zone. The ministry plans to report annual implementation results to the R&D Special Zones Committee to review progress.

Deputy Prime Minister Kyung-hoon Bae (배경훈), who also serves as minister of science and ICT, said R&D special zones have contributed to building regional industrial foundations through expanded designation. He said the ministry would actively support them to become key hubs leading balanced growth under “5 poles and 3 specials” on the back of the fifth plan.