Presidential candidate Rep. Park Geun-hye of the conservative Saenuri Party announced on Thursday a new road map to realizing her campaign pledge of creating more jobs and spurring economic growth. The plan calls for science and information technology to be the new engine for revitalizing the stagnating economy.

“Our nation’s economy faces a new crisis at the moment. With the lowest birthrate in the world and a rapidly aging population, the growth engine that is the heart of our economy has stopped,” Park said in a speech at her campaign headquarters. “With the new economic growth paradigm that will direct South Korea’s future economy, I suggest a ‘creative economy’ doctrine.”

Imagination, creativity and scientific technology were the key themes in Park’s first major speech on economic growth and job creation since announcing her candidacy in July. Park’s speech comes amid grim outlook reports on the South Korean economy.

The Bank of Korea, South Korea’s central bank, lowered its forecast for growth this year to 2.4 percent last week, citing weak exports and domestic consumption, and declining production in the manufacturing and service sectors. The OECD predicted the growth rate of South Korea’s economy would hover around 2 percent in 10 years, and 1 percent in 20 years.

Some of the action plans outlined in Park’s speech included developing the software industry, making the government more open and connected and increasing government assistance to start-up companies. The former first daughter also pledged to establish a new government ministry focused on nurturing scientific minds and grooming the knowledge industry.

The proposed ministry mirrors the Ministry of Science and Technology that her father, President Park Chung-hee, originally founded in 1967 which played field marshal to South Korea’s unprecedented economic rise. President Lee Myung-bak split up the ministry in 2008, with some parts merging with the Ministry of Education and others with the Ministry of Knowledge Economy.

The paradigm shift called on by the nation’s 60-year-old first female presidential candidate echoes similar campaign pledges by the Democratic United Party’s Moon Jae-in and independent candidate Ahn Cheol-soo.

Moon, a 59-year-old Special Forces veteran, has pledged to build a world-class medical and science industry belt in North Chungcheong Province to be modeled after California’s Silicon Valley, in an attempt to win votes from the crucial swing province. Moon also pledged to re-establish the Ministry of Science and Technology.

Ahn, a 50-year-old software mogul and former professor at KAIST, has also turned his campaign rhetoric to revitalizing the science industry.

“The spirit of challenge necessary for scientific inquiry has been lost these days to an overt focus on quantifiable results,” Ahn said last month at a talk with robotics researchers after trying out unmanned cars at Kookmin University.

By Samuel Songhoon Lee (songhoon@heraldcorp.com)