Korea's Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs (MLTM) celebrated establishment of Korea Institute of Ocean Science &Technology (KIOST) with an explanation of its vision and development strategies and revealed its national R&D plan for enhancement of global competitiveness in offshore and arctic sectors, on July 18.
MLTM is to provide overall KRW 3.6trn ($3.16bn) by 2020, in order to strengthen research on Arctic region and foster new offshore industries.
KIOST will lead R&D on offshore/arctic by focusing on fostering new offshore industry, studying climate change, expanding arctic and offshore research infrastructures, etc.
First off, to secure new growth engine in offshore sector, KIOST will concentrate on research and development of offshore resources, energy development, offshore plant, etc., which would support the new industry as a whole.
KIOST plans to expand R&D on offshore plant, particularly, a blue ocean to replace shipbuilding industry. Until recently, Korea has been focusing on exploration and development of several offshore resources, such as oil, gas, etc., however, in the near future, there will be growing demand for offshore plant in various fields, for instance, development of deep-sea offshore minerals and offshore dissolved resources, LNG bunkering, offshore observation, etc.
Moreover, having a great impact on other offshore related industries, such as machinery, shipbuilding, etc., these sectors should be supported and promoted by the government.
Also, KIOST is to continue research to find causes for climate change and prepare countermeasures, as well as proceed technical development of CO2 Capture & Storage (CCS).
Also, it will make efforts on Arctic-related R&D.
The institute plans to construct 5,000 t advanced large-sized offshore research vessel and develop 6,000-meter deep submarine by 2015 in order to build up the R&D foundation for deep-sea research and exploration.