SOUTH Korea has decided to relax its visa rules for foreign workers involved in research and development, and new industries such as artificial intelligence (AI).
Government officials said the move was to attract skilled foreign professionals as part of measures to secure a competitive edge in the rapidly changing global industry ecosystem.
According to a Korea Times report, the government will also create a "digital nomad visa" that would allow skilled foreign IT workers to stay in the country even if they do not work for companies based in South Korea.
The new visa rules were decided by a foreigners' policy committee led by Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun on Wednesday, which said this was also due to continued decrease in South Korea's population.
The decline has resulted in a growing number of elderly people and a drop in the number of workers.
The committee said the government will grant additional points in visa applications if applicants have intellectual property rights in foreign countries.
Limits on the number of foreign workers that can be employed by companies in new industry fields, such as AI and bioscience, will also be removed while the "digital nomad visa" is for those who generate a certain amount of income from abroad as remote work is a growing trend.
Meanwhile, to help overcome labour shortages in small manufacturing businesses as well as agricultural, fishing and dairy industries, the government will shorten the re-entry rules for foreign workers to one month from the current three months.
The foreign workers can also extend their stay by up to a year if it is difficult for them to return to their home countries due to outbreaks of infectious diseases or natural disasters.
Officials said the government will also come up with a variety of measures to help them settle in areas outside of Seoul as some 66 per cent of foreign nationals were concentrated in the capital city.
South Korea's population fell for the first time last year, according to government data.
The Korea Economic Research Institute had also forecasted that the country's population would drop by half to less than 25 million by 2060, while the Korea Development Institute predicted that the nation's potential growth rate would fall to 1.9 per cent between 2031 and 2040, from 3.6 percent between 2011 and 2020.
In response to the new visa rulings, American Chamber of Commerce Board of Governors chairman Jeffery Jones said it would actively attract skilled foreign professionals who would contribute to South Korea's economy.
However, he said missing was the reformation of the tax policies for foreign workers.
"South Korea tends to impose heavier taxes on foreign workers, compared to Singapore and Hong Kong. To attract more skilled foreign professionals, tax benefits should be enhanced as well," he said.