MOTIE 2025 Work Plan: Full-Version Policy Analysis

The centerpiece of MOTIE's 2025 work plan is intensive cultivation of "national strategic industries." Centered on four pillars — semiconductors, future mobility (EVs and hydrogen vehicles), bio-health, and secondary batteries — the government provides packaged support encompassing production facility investment, R&D tax credits, supply chain strengthening, and workforce development. This goes beyond simple subsidy provision to represent a structural transformation strategy aimed at elevating competitiveness across entire industrial ecosystems.

MOTIE's 2025 trade policy operates on three tracks. First, increasing utilization of existing FTAs and concluding new ones. Second, restoring the WTO multilateral system and strengthening developing country trade cooperation. Third, strategic responses to trade pressure from the U.S. and EU (tariffs, subsidies, supply chain regulations). The year 2025 is one where trade authority response capabilities face their greatest test, as the Trump administration's reciprocal tariff policies take concrete form.

In response to U.S. Reciprocal Tariff policies, MOTIE operates a "U.S. Trade Pressure Response TF," developing product-specific strategies covering steel and aluminum safeguards, semiconductor subsidy conditions, and IRA EV tax credits. For EU CBAM, carbon data management systems and corporate training are being developed in parallel to minimize industry burden. Against WTO developing country preference reduction pressure, Korea emphasizes a "strategic middle ground" role — defending existing preferences while fulfilling international responsibilities as an advanced economy.

MOTIE declared 2025 the "inaugural year of accelerated energy transition," presenting concrete policies for achieving the 2030 NDC (Nationally Determined Contribution) as the midpoint of the Carbon Neutrality 2050 roadmap. The core 2025 energy policy direction is to increase the renewable energy share in the power mix, rationally redefine the role of nuclear power, and pursue the parallel transition to a hydrogen economy.

In MOTIE's 2025 work plan, investment and exports are designed not as separate policies but as a single virtuous cycle system. Foreign investment inflows create jobs and technology, which in turn drive exports. The two anchor numbers for 2025 are "$35 billion in advanced industry FDI" and "$700 billion in exports."

A distinctive feature of 2025 export support is the concentrated investment in "broadening the SME export base." While exports have traditionally been dominated by conglomerates like Samsung, Hyundai, and LG, from 2025 the focus shifts to discovering and cultivating SMEs with annual exports below $1 million. Key instruments include export vouchers (up to KRW 100 million per company), Global Export Star Firms program (intensive cultivation of 100 companies), and online export platform enhancement. Additionally, defense exports (K-Defense), nuclear exports, and infrastructure contracts (plant and construction) are being separately managed as "mega-exports" targeting visible contribution to annual export statistics.

Regulatory reform is treated as an independent chapter in MOTIE's 2025 work plan, reflecting its significance. Under the principle that "regulations blocking investment will be eliminated," the plan targets discovery and resolution of 200+ regulatory improvement items annually. The three core priorities are advanced industry siting deregulation, environmental and safety permitting streamlining, and expanded regulatory sandboxes for new technologies and industries.

MOTIE's 2025 work plan directly impacts trade and investment relations with Bangladesh. The Korea-Bangladesh CEPA negotiations entering a substantive phase, KOTRA emerging market export promotion, energy and infrastructure export expansion, and Bangladesh's role in advanced industry supply chains — opportunities and challenges intersect across multiple dimensions. This section examines how Korean companies active in Bangladesh can leverage this work plan.

Bangladesh is also an important market in the energy transition space. Bangladesh has set a national target of raising its renewable energy share to 40% by 2030, and significant portions of its current generation capacity are aging. Korean companies' solar modules, inverters, LNG combined-cycle generation equipment, and smart grid technologies directly address Bangladesh's energy infrastructure modernization needs. Combining MOTIE's energy export platform with KOICA and EDCF increases the likelihood of Korean energy company project wins in Bangladesh.

MOTIE's 2025 work plan is not limited to achieving short-term export indicators — it is a medium-to-long-term blueprint for designing the future of Korea's industrial structure. Securing Korea's core position within the global supply chains of semiconductors, batteries, and bio; an orderly transition toward a carbon-neutral economy; market diversification through the FTA/CEPA network; and creating business investment conditions through regulatory reform — these four elements interlock to underpin sustainable growth of the Korean economy. Korean companies active in Bangladesh and their Bangladeshi trade partners should understand the direction of this work plan and formulate strategies that maximize utilization of Korea's policy resources and networks.