SEOUL– South Korea’s science minister on Thursday unveiled plans to build a state-run biofoundry, an integrated biomanufacturing platform, in a bid to expand the country’s presence in the prominent sector.

“We will create a biofoundry, where designing and manufacturing vaccines and medicine take place simultaneously,” Lee Jong-ho, the minister of science and ICT, said in a governmental meeting chaired by President Yoon Suk-yeol, adding the bioindustry has a large global market and can create many jobs.

A biofoundry refers to facilities that offer integrated tools of biological engineering, data analysis and scaled-up processes for biomanufacturing.

“South Korea’s share in the world biomarket reaches 2 percent, but we will raise the number to a double digit within 10 years,” he said. “A state-run biofoundry is necessary to achieve the goal.”

The minister also said the government strives to help South Korea, the world’s biggest memory chip producer, grow as the world’s No. 1 country in the market for low-power artificial intelligence chips.

“South Korea’s AI market is currently worth 2.2 trillion won (US$1.5 billion), and the government will help the market treble within five years,” he added.

Source: Yonhap News Agency