Reason for proposal and main contents

Under the current Act, the central and local governments are required to secure the necessary financial budget and establish and promote the related policies for the development of special R&D zones (hereinafter referred to as “special zones”).

Accordingly, the Minister of Science and ICT should develop and promote a comprehensive plan for the development of such special zones as well as policies for universities located in the special zones in order to foster specialized R&D personnel and to support commercialization in new and convergent technological fields (hereinafter referred to as “specialized R&D personnel, etc.”).

However, it has been pointed out that the current law does not properly reflect the rapidly changing conditions for the development of human resources because it lacks a comprehensive basis for fostering and attracting specialized R&D personnel, etc. 

Therefore, the proposed revision aims to promote the efficient support and operation of the special zones by including provisions related to the development of special zones, while requiring the policies formulated to attract and foster specialized research and development personnel in the special R&D zones to include surveys on trends in the supply and demand of manpower, and provisions related to attracting and deploying highly skilled scientific and technical personnel from overseas (Article 6, Article 6-2, Article 10, Article 22, newly established Article 22-2, newly established Article 22-3, newly established Article 25-2, and Article 48 of the draft).