Korea finance ministry launches task force to track major national projects

South Korea's finance ministry said Friday it had launched a task force to monitor delivery of its major national policy projects, opening with a review that found all 130 near-term tasks under its green transition strategy proceeding as planned.

First Vice Minister Kwon Dae-young chaired the kickoff meeting, joined by vice ministers and senior officials from the labor, financial services, data, climate and energy, and science ministries. The body is designed to pin down implementation plans for three flagship programmes, track their progress and mediate disagreements among the ministries involved.

The meeting focused on the Korean-style Green Transition, or K-GX, strategy announced on Oct. 7. Officials reviewed 88 tasks scheduled for 2026 and 42 for 2027 and concluded that none had stalled.

The government has pledged 1,000 trillion won ($749 billion) over the decade through 2035 to back the green transition, split between 200 trillion won ($150 billion) in fiscal spending and 790 trillion won ($592 billion) in climate finance, with additional sources to be added. Climate finance had reached 54.8 trillion won ($41 billion) by the end of September, or 96.6 percent of this year's 56.7 trillion won ($42.5 billion) target.

Officials also discussed the Seven SEED Projects, covering small modular reactors, nuclear fusion, renewable energy, quantum technology, aerospace, advanced biology and advanced supply chains. The government has set aside about 4 trillion won ($3 billion) for the seven fields in its 2027 budget proposal, and plans to flesh out an implementation framework and strategy for each area within the year so that investment, demonstration and commercialisation can begin in earnest next year.

On the three livelihood projects — housing, jobs and small-borrower finance — cross-ministry working groups are now operating by task, with the aim of identifying measures whose effects households can feel and bringing them forward quickly.

The ministry said the government will keep concentrating national resources so that the major tasks produce tangible results rather than remaining announcements.