President Lee said in his National Liberation Day speech on August 15 that he will create growth engines for the economy via low-carbon technology and clean energy.

Meeting with Ulsan City officials, scholars and business leaders the Korean leader emphasized the need to reorient the nation's traditional industrial core toward environmentally sustainable growth.

Having previously vowed to make Korea the world's fourth largest producer of ecologically-friendly cars by 2020, Lee promised to support Ulsan's research and development in this regard.

Lee also visited oil refiner SK Energy's new facility that can produce 60,000 thousand barrels of cleaner gasoline per day, saying it was an example for other Korean industries to follow.

Deregulation has been the main feature of the president's push for economic revival. He has taken his Green Growth initiative to the nation's industrial Mecca, where crude oil refiners, automobile manufacturers, and shipbuilders led Korea's rapid growth in the 1970s.

Arirang News