[THE INVESTOR]  The government announced on Oct. 19 that South Korea will center on fostering the local engineering sector as one of the country’s new growth engines.

Engineering is an industrial service of design, project management, maintenance and others, which are essential for companies to manufacture a product or construct a building from the beginning.

It is considered a high value-added sector that has a wide collaboration with various fields like physics, chemistry, mathematics, business and finance.

The United States takes up 31.5 percent, followed by Canada with 12.6 percent and the Netherlands with 9.9 percent.

South Korea accounts for only 2.4 percent of the global market.

“Engineering is a fundamental source of the entire industry,” said Deputy Trade Minister Toh Kyung-hwan.

According to the plan, the government will set up a 3-D industrial plant at the state-run Engineering Development Research Center to give tailored vocational training.

It will also introduce programs from renowned engineering training institutions, including the U.S. PetroSkills and the French Institute of Petroleum, to give better opportunities to Korean students.

The government will develop engineering software for small and mid-sized firms, and encourage them to use the programs that enable companies to simulate their products at the first stage.

(theinvestor@heraldcorp.com)