As reported in The Korea Times, the Knowledge Economy Ministry has announced that it will channel $26.3 million next year alone in an effort to become one of the three world powers in the robot industry by 2018. This has been one of the government's goals for several years now, as noted in earlier posts.
Korea is seeking to capitalize on the global transition from a focus on mass production models to service robots. Presently, Korea's global market share is about ten percent. It seeks to double that figure by 2018. That means that Asia’s fourth-largest economy is looking to earn as much as $20 billion a year in 2018 as the world market is expected to grow to $100 billion by then from today’s $10 billion.
The article notes that growth of the robotics industry is expected to positively effect related businesses such as motors, sensors, actuators, displays and chips.