Ever since President Park Geun-hye introduced her vision and policy for a “creative economy” after taking office in February, the public and politicians alike have paid particular attention to the slogan.

She laid out a number of pointers for the development of a creative economy such as convergence of IT and science, and sustainability of small and medium enterprises, in line with goals of achieving an employment rate of 70 percent.

“The main axis that will form the creative economy is science and information and technology,” Park said.

Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Hyun Oh-seok summed up the president’s creative economy policy as developing an “eco-system” where entrepreneurs and young people can take risks, secure funds to finance the launch of innovative start-ups, and even relaunch businesses after failure.

Hyun recently put forth the example of Finland, one of the four European countries highlighted by The Economist to have successfully weathered the financial storm in the region through innovation.

With growth facing an uphill battle amid falling profitability at Nokia, which accounts for a large share of its economy, Finland made a stunning comeback by encouraging creative venture start-ups, he said in a forum on creative economy.

Korea, at the moment, is still at the basic stage of defining itself and how it will change, and would need a major makeover with a clearer plan for the transformation it seeks in its economy, said John Howkins, chairman of BOP Consulting based in London. Howkins is also a visiting professor of City University, London and the author of “The Creative Economy.”

“It requires an overhaul of many policies, in the same way as Korea’s industrialization required new policies in many areas,” Howkins said via email.

“Helping start-ups and helping tech develop are two elements. But there are many others, ranging from education to intellectual property and export promotion.”

It has been one of Park’s most important policy pillars that she hopes will also drive Korea to come out of its low-growth trap amid a continuously poor job market for college graduates.

Establishing the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning, which will operate as the control tower for the creative economy initiative, is seen as one of Park’s steps toward shifting the focus of Korea’s economy from chaebol, or family-run conglomerates, to an SMEs and venture tech firms ― especially when few jobs are created for the young as most seek stable positions at public or private conglomerates.

This is likely to be reflected when she holds her first summit with President Barack Obama in the U.S., where innovative and successful start-ups that later became blue-chip firms are highly present in the tech hub of Silicon Valley. Park mentioned that Korea should further support its SMEs to expand in countries with which the country has free trade pacts.

She said that the alliance between Korea and the U.S. is “historically shown to be the most successful partnership” in the world. The summit comes as this year marks the 60th anniversary of the armistice that ended the 1950-53 Korean War.

“It would be best to make use of FTAs with countries with which Korea has partnered more than Japan to increase the country’s SME export competitiveness,” Park said in an investment and export-related meeting with corresponding ministers and corporate executives.

Hyun also said that the time was ripe for Korea to boost relations with the U.S. through the free trade agreement so that companies, especially SMEs from both countries, can benefit more from the trade deal signed in 2007.

In a casual meeting with U.S. Ambassador Sung Kim last month amid heightened tensions with North Korea, the deputy prime minister sought further talks between the two countries as comprehensive partners on ways to increase the benefits especially for people from both sides.

Hyun also seeks to further strengthen the alliance with the U.S. through increased collaboration, not only economically but also in diplomacy, security and culture, the Ministry of Strategy and Finance said in a statement.

Park is expected to talk with President Obama on May 7 about issues ranging from North Korea and the military alliance to the trade pact, nuclear energy and technology cooperation.

The major difference from the previous administration’s economic policy for start-ups is that the Park government is trying to encourage the private sector to lead efforts to create venture firms and expand their life cycle, whereas previously this was mainly driven by the government, experts said.

“Korea should build its own strengths, not try to copy Intel or Apple or Google,” said Howkins, noting it would be hard to imitate what Silicon Valley has done.

Former President Kim Dae-jung is credited with being the first to promote a policy for venture start-ups as a means to overcome the Asian financial crisis in the late 1990s that undermined Korea’s growth and job market.

In 2012, Korea exported goods worth some $49 billion to the U.S., accounting for almost 11 percent of total outbound shipments, while it imported U.S. goods worth $37 billion, according to government data.

By Park Hyong-ki (hkp@heraldcorp.com)