On June 21st, The Ministry of Science and ICT of South Korea announced that their Blockchain Technology Development Strategy plans on investing a total of 230 billion Won (over of $200M USD) into blockchain developments. The sum will be fundraised.
More Developments
The Government revealed that it plans to complete the fundraising by 2022. The Korean government plans on supporting over 10,000 industry professionals and 100 companies as an effort to develop and further the advancement of blockchain-based innovations.
Additionally, the country revealed its intentions to rationalize the investments into several different directions. The general goal is to increase the country’s position in the world of blockchain technology.
Furthering Pilot Projects
The ministry plans to expand the scale in the following year and facilitate the development of six blockchain pilot projects. These projects come from different business sectors, accentuating the benefits of blockchain technology across various industries. The projects focus on the following areas: electronic document distributions between countries, real estate, online voting, marine logistics livestock records management, and personal customs clearance.
Blockchain as a Service (BaaS)
South Korea’s ministry also plans to support the development of BaaS. Their primary objective is to help companies which are specialized in blockchain. To accomplish this, the ministry will make available around 10 BaaS purchase vouchers that assure government payments to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) every year.
Striving For A Clearer Legislation
The announcement also mentioned that the ministry will be establishing research teams. They will work to improve the current regulations, which are momentarily obstructing the general adoption of blockchain technology in the country.
The announcement also alluded to possible tax benefits for blockchain technology developers. Investors also got some attention back in May, when South Korea’s National Assembly recommended legally allowing ICOs under certain conditions, thus establishing a degree of protection for them.
All in all, this is favorable news for the local crypto community, as the country is apparently becoming more accepting of cryptos and they are really striving to make blockchain-based applications an integral part of their IT industry.
