South Korea will ratchet up oversight of state-funded research and development (R&D) projects and try to better utilize their outcomes to help fuel economic growth, the nation's economic czar said Monday.

Faced with intensifying competition from China and other rivals, South Korea has been pouring money into R&D projects over the past years in an effort to provide tailwinds for Asia's fourth-largest economy.

R&D spending has grown at an annual average rate of 12 percent over the last decade, with the amount reaching 59.3 trillion won ($54.4 billion) in 2013, making it the sixth largest in the world. It was equal to 4.15 percent of the nation's gross domestic product, the highest percentage in the world.

"The government should enhance its control tower role and make it possible to get more industrial sector input in selecting projects to support," Finance Minister Choi Kyung-hwan said during a visit to a science valley south of Seoul.

Choi announced an R&D reform plan that calls for raising the level of expertise of the National Science and Technology Council that is in charge of allocating the budget.

"The new plan calls for close cooperation between R&D projects and the market," he said. "Research much clearly reflect market demands from start to finish so it can be readily used by businesses."

It also aims to ease administrative paperwork that must be filed by researchers, which has been cited for making it difficult for researchers and scientists to concentrate on their work.

The plan comes as the country's R&D program has taken flak for churning out patents and knowhow that are not really used by businesses.

"Roughly 98 percent of all projects that get funding are completed, yet 70 percent are not used, which is a big waste," said Choi, who doubles as deputy prime minister for economic affairs.

The minister said another key goal of the reform plan is to enable state-funded R&D to directly support small and medium enterprises that do not have the manpower to carry out research. (Yonhap)