Seoul - "Low Carbon, Green Growth" will be South Korea's vision for the next six decades said President Lee Myung Bak Friday in a speech marking the nation's 60th anniversary.

"Now is the time for us to turn the recent surge in oil prices into an opportunity to transform economic fundamentals and create new growth engines," said the president who has been in power since February.

The government will introduce a package of measures against climate change next month that Lee says will promote job creation and overcome challenges from climate change and sky-high oil prices by utilizing green technology and clean energy.

"Even if soaring oil prices drop in the years to come, now is the time for us to bid farewell to the era of excessive oil dependence," said the conservative Lee.

Specifically, he said the South Korean government will increase the portion of new renewable energy in the nation's entire energy consumption from 2.4 per cent last year to over 11 per cent by 2030.

Lee said his vision included South Korea building 1 million "green homes," entirely dependent on new renewable energy, and becoming the world's fourth-largest producer of environmentally-friendly "green cars," both by 2020.

During his five-year term he wants South Korea to be one of the top five producer nations for "green cars."

The industry for renewable energies, among them wind, water, bio and solar energy, will create around a multiple more jobs than existing industries, said Lee.

"Our green growth strategy will enable us to be in the vanguard of the hydrogen era," said the president of Asia's third largest economy. (dpa)