The government plans to expand the country's robot industry by more than 10 times over the next decade, the commerce ministry said Wednesday.

Under the plan, the government will invest 350 billion won ($316 million) over the next 10 years to develop various technologies and new industrial, as well as commercial robots, such as disaster relief robots and home assistance robots, the Ministry of Knowledge Economy said.

The move will help boost the size of the country's robot industry from its current value of 2 trillion won to 25 trillion won in 2022, it said.

The government also seeks to set up a separate plan for the development of what it called "intelligent robots" before the end of next year. (Yonhap)