As the importance of developing countries’ self-sustaining economic growth and the urgency of responding to global challenges have increased, the international community has come to need comprehensive development goals. The Sustainable Development Goals(SDGs) have been adopted as new development goals since 2015, the deadline for the completion of the Millennium Development Goals(MDGs). The new development agenda consisted of 17 goals and 169 targets covering a wide range of sectors including economics, society, environment, and international relations.

By including a wider range of issues, SDGs have become a comprehensive and concrete development objective. As a result, it is a criterion that is considered not only in the case of supporting developing countries, but also of implementing domestically by all countries all over the world including developed countries. The inclusion of broad targets in the SDGs and the domestic implementation of developed countries has led to the need for diverse stakeholder participation and considerable financial resources. In this condition, the role of the enterprise as a source of new financial resources and as an efficient and professional cooperative partner has been noticed. Companies will be able to use SDGs as their core system in planning and operating their strategies, objectives and activities.

This study analyzes the economic and industrial aspects of the SDGs and presents information and guidelines to help achieve this, focusing on the government’s efforts to implement SDGs in the domestic economy, particularly those that will drive sustainable growth. Goals 8 and 9 are primary goals related to economic growth.

Goal 8 addresses “the promotion of inclusive and sustainable economic growth, employment and decent work for all”. This is most directly and closely related to the economic realm among the 17 objectives, with economic growth and jobs as key goals. Goal 9 is largely composed of three key elements of infrastructure, industrialization and innovation, and is expressed as “building resilient infrastructure, promoting inclusive and sustainable industrialization and fostering innovation”. Infrastructure such as transportation, communication, and energy provides the basic system essential for running society and businesses. Industrialization leads to economic growth, job creation, and consequently income poverty reduction. Innovation advances the technical capabilities of the industrial sector and leads to the development of new technologies.

We conducted surveys of companies to understand the awareness of sustainable development of domestic companies and the plans to achieve SDGs at the level of enterprises. Respondents’ awareness of the 17 SDGs is low. Nearly half(49%) of respondents said they had never heard of SDGs, and only a small percentage(1%) said they knew the details. Only 23% of the respondents have a company-wide countermeasure against the implementation of the SDGs, mainly in terms of strategy, planning, and manpower. On the other hand, SDGs have not been considered sufficiently in terms of budget allocation and new business development.

Respondents replied that SDG 8(economic growth and decent work) was overwhelmingly the most important goal of the 17 SDGs at both national and company levels. In addition to SDG 8, they answered SDG 3(good health and well-being), SDG 4(quality education) and SDG 10(reduced inequalities) as important goals at the national level, being aware of the importance of social issues at the national level. On the other hand, they recognized that SDG 9(infrastructure, industry and innovation) and SDG 12(sustainable consumption and production) were strategically important at the enterprise level.

This study presents an in - depth analytical framework of SDGs by indicators. First, through the framework, we investigate SDGs and detailed targets, seek the ways to improve the perception of them, and examine their relationship with domestic sustainable development indicators. We then identify domestic government departments and agencies, and international organizations and conferences related to the targets. The framework helps us identify national policies and documents, guidelines, recommendations, and international agreements related to each indicator, which presents the direction of implementation. Finally, we understand the domestic situation for each indicator and set baseline.

SDG 8 and 9 were analyzed according to the in - depth analytical framework proposed in this study. The background and significance of SDG 8 and 9, analysis of detailed targets, indicators and norms and guidelines, domestic conditions and baseline survey were presented.

To achieve SDGs at the enterprise level, priority should be given to strengthening awareness and monitoring of SDGs in the enterprise. Internalizing SDGs in the organization, job, and business of a company, mapping the application of the SDGs in the value chain step of the enterprise activity from raw materials to product disposal will be helpful. In this way, companies can search for the priority SDG of each company and create business opportunities.

At the government level, national strategies for achieving sustainable development should be established securing their comprehensiveness. SDGs should also be mainstreamed in other key policies and plans. For the effective mainstreaming of SDGs, there is a need for a coordination system aimed at strengthening the cooperation of various stakeholders, including companies. In addition, we could expand the public-private partnership system that will enhance the sustainable potential of new business opportunities and improve the implementation ability of them.