South Korea's new fisheries minister has vowed to focus on revitalizing the country's shipping industry and establish an ICT-based shipping, port and logistics systems to beef up its capabilities.

During his inauguration ceremony on Wednesday, Fisheries Minister Moon Seong-hyeok called for reforms in the shipping industry to turn it into a low-cost and highly-efficient structure, as well as an active expansion of the country's global logistics network.

Moon said that the industry should also embrace smart technologies, including artificial intelligence, big data and blockchain.

The minister vowed to adopt smart technologies in the fishery industry from production and processing to retail in order to make the sector one of the country's major industries that creates jobs.

Referring to the ministry's previous goal to halve the emission of fine dust at local ports by 2022, Moon said he will also seek ways to tackle wastes in the sea.