Han Duck-soo, acting president, said on the 24th, 'We will strengthen the quality and safety of bottled water by introducing a new certification system for the entire process, from groundwater extraction to production, distribution, and storage of bottled water.'
Acting President Han chaired the 62nd governmental affairs ministerial meeting held at the Seoul Government Complex in Jongno-gu that day, stating, 'We have prepared a plan to improve the management system for bottled water for safe and sustainable management.'
Acting President Han noted, 'Bottled water has become one of the major consumer goods in people's lives,' and added, 'Concerns about groundwater depletion due to droughts caused by climate change are increasing, and there remains anxiety about the safety of bottled water.'
He said, 'We will scientifically revise the criteria for groundwater development permits and strengthen environmental impact assessments,' and he added, 'We will promote sustainable groundwater development and management to prevent indiscriminate abuse of groundwater.'
He stated, 'We will establish an integrated information portal that provides one-stop access to detailed information about sources and administrative enforcement violation history for products, and we will systematize relevant statistics to enhance market transparency and accountability.'
Acting President Han identified communication with the industry as a condition for the success of the plan. He urged, 'The Ministry of Environment and related departments should enhance the effectiveness and acceptance of this system improvement through sufficient communication with the industry, such as regularizing industry meetings.'
That day, Acting President Han also promised support for K-content. He explained, 'We have prepared a basic plan for promoting the animation industry to cultivate it as a new growth engine of K-content, which can derive numerous industries such as films, games, tourism, character products, and theme parks.'
Acting President Han said, 'We will establish an animation-specialized fund to focus investment on related small and medium-sized enterprises and venture companies, and we will actively support attracting investment from OTT platforms, broadcasters, and venture capitalists.'
He stated, 'To support the overseas expansion of Korean animation, we will conduct integrated promotions using major social networking (SNS) channels and local institutions such as the Korean Cultural Center,' and added, 'We will also promote support for dubbing and subtitling that considers local cultures.'
He added, 'We will support the development of related technologies so that new technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) can be utilized in animation production,' and emphasized, 'We will systematically create a future growth ecosystem by training specialized personnel in animation.'
He also mentioned that he would support advanced industries for the maritime transport industry. Acting President Han said, 'We will commercialize high-precision location information services that improve location information errors from the existing 10 meters to within the world’s best level of 5 centimeters using the Global Positioning System (GPS),' and added, 'We will utilize this in advanced industries such as autonomous driving.'
Consequently, he stated, 'By integrating advanced ICT technologies with buoys installed at sea to collect and provide various maritime information, we will enhance the safety of vessel navigation,' and further noted, 'We will promote the international standardization of our excellent navigation information technology to invigorate the navigation information industry.'
That day, Acting President Han also stated, 'To more thoroughly protect the lives and safety of the people from various health security threats, we will undergo a joint external evaluation of health security organized by the World Health Organization in August this year.'
He urged, 'Please utilize the vulnerabilities identified as an opportunity for each department to quickly improve and supplement them, thereby enhancing our country's health security capabilities.'