South Korea’s Ministry of Science and ICT has announced a new Blockchain Technology Development Strategy, The News Asia reports. The strategy will include a 230 billion Won (~207 million USD) investment by the Korean government into developing blockchain technology.

A press release by The Ministry of Science and ICT states that the aim of this new initiative is to promote blockchain technology in the public and private sectors, with the goal of providing more efficient public services to Korean citizens. The multi-million dollar investment will be put towards the promotion of 6 pilot projects in the public sector including: management of beef that can be reliably eaten, personal clearance to prevent fake reporting, simplified real estate transactions, online voting, cross-country electronic document distribution, and shipping logistics.

South Korea’s Minister of Information and Communication, Yu Young-min, stated that the strategy is meant to support private-led growth through the formation of an initial market and the development of globally competitive blockchain technology.

The initiative will begin with a rigorous development and performance assessment of the country’s existing technology. This assessment process is intended to establish a development road-map that will put South Korea on a level playing field with the most advanced blockchain tech countries in the world.

Following the assessment period, 10,000 blockchain professionals will be hired by the South Korean government, and an industrial development ecosystem will be launched with the creation of 100 professional enterprises. The South Korean government expects that the global blockchain market will grow over 10 times its current size over the next 5 years.

According to Yu, the initiative will also include private-led projects that will allow citizens to experience the benefits of blockchain technology and reduce unnecessary social costs.

This is exciting news for blockchain enthusiasts, particularly given how much negative crypto-related news has been coming out of South Korea lately: first the multi-million dollar hack of Coinrail, followed by the Korean government abandoning the idea of a state-backed cryptocurrency, and finally Wednesday’s hack on Bithumb.

While cryptocurrency continues to have a love-hate relationship with most institutions, there is clearly a strong push in both government and banking emphasizing the importance of blockchain technology. Indeed, the integration of blockchain into pre-existing infrastructure in these and other industries may become commonplace within the next few years.

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