New Energy Promotion
The South Korean government decided to invest 14 trillion won (US$12 billion) in the new energy industry this year, 25% more than a year ago. The amount is divided into 1.4 trillion won (US$1,2 billion) from the government itself, 5.1 trillion won (US$4.3 billion) from public organizations, 4.1 trillion won (US$3.4 billion) from the financial sector and 3.2 trillion won (US$2.7 billion) from the enterprise sector. Last year, the amounts were 1.2 trillion won (US$1.0 billion), 5.4 trillion won (US$4.5 billion), 2.7 trillion won (US$2.2 billion) and 1.7 trillion won (US$1.4 billion), respectively.
A series of loans and rental products are scheduled to be released by financial institutions for companies doing business in the industry. These include financial and investment packages worth a total of four trillion won (US$3.4 billion) or so, up 52% from a year earlier. The packages are likely to be made up of 630 billion won (US$535 million) in loan, 1.4 trillion won (US$1.2 billion) in fund, 1.8 trillion won (US$1.5 billion) in project financing and 290 billion won (US$246 million) in investment.
In the meantime, the Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO) and LG U+ are planning to invest 500 billion won for 10 years to come to build 2,000 smart factories to be operated based on clean energy sources. They recently signed a memorandum of understanding to this end.
In addition, the LH Corporation and LG Electronics set up clean energy and smart home systems for 2,000 households this year before expanding the scale of the project down the road.