The government on Monday announced plans to earmark 2.05 trillion won ($1.76 billion) from the budget on research and development, including setting aside 111 billion won for its space program, which seeks to build an indigenous satellite by 2017 and a space rocket by 2021.

The total amount marks a 5.17 percent increase from last year’s 1.95 trillion won, according to the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology.

The largest share of the R&D fund, or 975 billion won, will go to research in fundamental science, up 6.68 percent from 2011, with some 464 billion won set aside for the development of indigenous technologies, according to the ministry.

The R&D budget for the space program dropped 12.59 percent from a year earlier, largely due to money being used to start work to build the country’s first space rocket and a new satellite under Seoul’s second five-year space program launched at the beginning of 2012.

The money allocated to R&D on space will “focus on the development of an indigenous satellite and launch system that will significantly help strengthen the country’s independent space program,” the ministry said in a press release. (Yonhap News)