Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy and Finance Choo Kyung-ho speaks during a press conference briefing on Korea's 2023 economy policy direction at the Government Complex Seoul, Wednesday. Yonhap

By Anna J. Park

With the Korean government's economic policy for next year outlined in its official announcement on Wednesday, securities firms forecast that semiconductors, secondary battery, defense, nuclear power generation as well as the content sector will benefit from the policy direction.

The 2023 economic policy direction announced jointly by the Ministry of Economy and Finance, along with related ministries, stressed that the government aims to turn Korea into one of the world's top five export powerhouses. The government plans to achieve the goal by putting emphasis on maintaining significant technological gaps with other export countries, in terms of the country's key export industries, such as semiconductors, secondary batteries and displays.

Besides the key export areas, the government also vowed to foster other competitive sectors of the country, including content, defense and the nuclear power generation sectors. Overseas construction projects as well as the bio and space industries are also included the government's strategic growth plans.

As the government intends to come up with a detailed set of measures to raise the export competitiveness of these sectors, in addition to taxation benefits granted to these key industries, market analysts point out that the government's policy direction and growth strategy should be used as guidelines for savvy investments next year. They forecast that the stocks of corporations committed to these sectors will enjoy positive momentum in their share price movements next year.

"The government's unprecedented policy focus on reinvigorating the country's main export sectors and on nurturing new growth engines for the economy demonstrates its strong wiliness to recover slowed exports and stimulate further industries," Kim Jung-yoon, a strategist at Daishin Securities, said.

"It is thus necessary to pay extra attention to these sectors of chips, batteries, content, defense and nuclear power generation. The stocks of these industries are expected to show distinctive momentum during the first half of next year, especially when the government sets out more detailed investment and support policies for the sectors," the analyst elaborated.