Seoul: South Korea will work to expand the size of its maritime information market to 27 trillion won (US$18.9 billion) by 2029, the oceans ministry said Thursday.

According to Yonhap News Agency, the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries announced the goal at a government policy coordination meeting as part of its broader plan to innovate the maritime navigation information system. Under the plan, the government will work to increase the size of the maritime information market by 6 trillion won from the current value of 21 trillion won.

To achieve the goal, the government will roll out a high precision location information service that will reduce the margin of error in GPS from 10 meters to just 5 centimeters and support industrial use of the upgraded information. The new location information service can be used in the advanced mobility industry for smart ports, autonomous ships, and farming drones, the ministry explained.

With the upgrade, the user base of the maritime navigation information system could expand to 1.1 million from the current 70,000, according to the ministry. The ministry said it will also work to distribute receivers for the terrestrial positioning system to vessels operating near the maritime border in the West Sea to respond to potential GPS signal jamming attempts by North Korea.

Additionally, South Korea will seek international standardization of its high-precision location information service by 2028, while it will also work to establish an international cooperation center under the International Association of Marine Aids to Navigation and Lighthouse Authorities (IALA) within the country.