South Korea's ICT ministry said Monday it will spend 78.9 billion won ($67.3 million) to nurture the digital signage industry in line with its efforts to foster new growth engines.

Under the plan, the Ministry of Science, ICT, and Future Planning will make the investments through 2018  into expanding support to related startups while abolishing unnecessary regulations.

Digital signage refers to display devices that show advertisements and information in public or commercial areas through networks. South Korea currently makes up 19 percent of the global digital signage market.

Of the amount, 33.3 billion won will also be spent to develop core technologies that meet global standards.

The ministry added that the project is predicted to generate  5.5 trillion won of production and create 30,000 more jobs by 2018.

The global market for digital signage stood at $15.1 billion in 2014, but is predicted to gradually increase to $31.4 billion in 2020, the ministry said, adding that the industry will grow as another key area of the ICT segment in the future. (Yonhap)