President Park Geun-hye Thursday called her signature creative economy a growth engine for South Korea's economy in the latest push to revive the country's tepid business landscape.

Park's creative economy vision calls for boosting the economy and creating jobs by turning creative ideas into real businesses through science and technology and information technology.

Park said she hopes that 17 innovation centers will "serve as a new momentum for growth" in a ceremony marking the completion of the innovation centers.

South Korea set up the innovation centers across the country to match up local startups and venture firms with conglomerates, known here as chaebol, which can provide resources to smaller companies so that they can turn creative ideas into real businesses.

Park also expressed hope that the innovation centers could become a place where aspiring entrepreneurs can communicate with each other and their ideas and technology are traded.

South Korea has been pushing to encourage young people to create startups in a country where many people still do not want to take risks as it is not easy to bounce back from a business failure.

Many South Korean college graduates hope to join Samsung Electronics Co., Hyundai Motor Co. and other corporate giants over venture startups.

Park also asked the innovation centers and big corporations to help create jobs for young people, saying that the government plans to create more than 200,000 jobs for young people by 2017.

(Yonhap)