To promote the commercialization of LED lighting, South Korea's Knowledge Economy Ministry announced in 2006 a "15/30" plan, which means to achieve 30% LED lighting commercialization by 2015. The ministry later announced a "20/60" plan in hopes to achieve 60% commercialization by 2020 and a full ban on producing and selling incandescent lamps in 2014.
Digitimes Research expects the LED lighting market in South Korea to reach US$7.8 billion by 2015.
Cooperating with the South Korea LED Commercialization Association, the municipal governments of Seoul and Pusan signed an MOU to install LED lighting at the cities' underground parking lots. The project will save about 562.50 million kWh per year for each city. In addition, Seoul plans to set up a venture fund of KRW40 billion (US$36 million) for green enterprise .
The ministry has been promoting high-efficiency LED lighting certification standards. This will increase product quality and reduce the time and fees for firms spend on the certification process. Through various strategies, the ministry expects to expand LED lighting exports to US$539 million in second-half 2012.
