South Korea announced a large-scale investment plan to foster the nation's biohealth industry, which it considers a future growth engine.

Under the plan, 36 biohealth companies and five venture capital firms, including Samsung Biologics and Celltrion, will invest a combined ten trillion won by 2023 to expand competitiveness and technological capabilities.

The largest portion of eight-point-four trillion won will be spent on developing medicines, followed by startup investment at one-point-four trillion won and medical equipment at 500 billion won.

The government, for its part, will increase spending on biohealth research and development by 30 percent from one-point-seven trillion won earmarked for next year.

It will open a biohealth manpower training center at Yonsei University's Songdo campus this year, aiming to foster two-thousand skilled workers each year starting in 2024.

The government will also establish an artificial intelligence-based innovative medicine center to help pharmaceutical firms cut the duration and cost of developing new drugs.