President Yoon Suk Yeol has instructed government agencies to scrap feasibility studies for research and development(R&D) projects and sharply expand investment toward such projects. 

Yoon issued the order on Friday during a financial strategy meeting in Sejong. 

The move is regarded to be drastic, given that the government had initially suggested easing or providing selective exemptions for such studies. 

Currently, feasibility studies must be conducted for months in order to execute R&D projects that cost more than 50 billion won, or about 36-point-eight million U.S. dollars. 

Also on Friday, the president reaffirmed the government’s plan to compile the largest-ever budget for R&D next year. 

In particular, Yoon stressed the need for all-out efforts toward overcoming the nation’s low birthrate, which he described as a national emergency that is directly related to the nation’s existence. 

He ordered government agencies to fully reexamine the structure of projects that receive financial support from the government to boost the nation’s birthrate in order to improve the way such projects are executed.