Green Industrial Power

Cautious Approach Needed Not to Repeat IT Fiasco

Last August, the government announced a long-term energy plan to increase the portion of renewable energy nationwide to 10.7 percent by 2030. This past April, however, it stopped accepting applications for solar plants, saying the yearly ceiling for subsidies had already been reached due to budgetary restraints.

One can't help but compare this policy flip-flop in less than a year with the government's other ``green project,'' which calls for pouring 22 trillion won into turning the nation's four major rivers into artificial waterways and parks.

The Lee Myung-bak administration's mistaken concept and upside-down policy priority with respect to green growth even prompted some foreign media to say, ``concrete is central to a South Korean green renaissance,'' and to describe President Lee as a former construction executive ``who likes green projects as long as they create jobs involving shovels and concrete.''

It is with such concern that we watch the government's ambitious program to invest 107 trillion won ($83 billion) to turn Korea into one of the ``Green G7'' powerhouses by 2030, unveiled Monday.

True, the promotion of green industries is shifting from an option to an obligation, with recession-stricken governments concluding that they could ― and should ― grow and, at the same time, remain green, to get out of the global recession brought about by financial bubbles. As a government official put it, only half-jokingly, ``You can only cover up a bubble with another bubble.'' If this proves not just a joke, however, the nation will be in trouble ― once again.

Many Koreans are still smarting from the nightmare of the IT venture fiasco early this decade, during which as many as 13,000 venture businesses were busier buying up expensive cars and buildings than conducting research and development with government subsidies of several trillion won. The industrial subsidies coming from taxpayer money at the time was ``blind money which could be had by those who first set their sights on it.''

Chances are high this may be repeated in the green industry boom, as the environmental sector, like the IT of a decade ago, has to heavily rely on governmental subsidies due to private financiers' reluctance to invest in the unproven businesses and their technology.

The success of the Green G7 plan depends on whether the government will be able to nip the shoots of the ``green bubble'' in the bud by focusing its financial support on strictly qualified firms. The Board of Audit and Inspection, and most of all, the National Assembly's environmental committee ought to remain wide-awake to prevent another seed of future growth from being trampled by greedy, unconscionable bureaucrats and executives.

Sadly, taxpayers may be able to do little but keep their fingers crossed with regard to rectifying wrong concepts of green growth held by President Lee and his aides.