NIA Spearheads
Ubiquitous Society

President Kim of the NIA announces plans to prepare for another 20 years for advancement of u-KOREA

Kim Chang-kon, president of the National Information Society Agency (NIA) touched on such futuristic topics like Korea's advancement of ubiquitous society in celebration of its 20th anniversary in an interview with NewsWorld. The following are the excerpts of his interview ― Ed.
Question: Would you tell our readers about the NIA's New Year plan and ambitions?
Answer: The NIA, celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, is on the verge of making a new leap to brace for another 20 years to come after ending the 20-year era of its predecessor, the National Computerization Agency (NCA).
Last year we declared a plan on the first year of embarking on a "Ubiquitous March", and established a basic plan on "u-Korea"policies last March. last October, the National Computerization Agency changed its name to the NIA.
The NIA has set as its core task for 2007, an acceleration of the Ubiquitous March. The u-KOREA Planning Committee worked on a final report on the futuristic society after in-depth discussions last year, which will become a base to work out detailed strategies, prospects and countermeasures of the future. A reference model of the u-City sector has been completed; Songdo IT Cluster Center will be dedicated within this year with the goal of activating a cluster of domestic foreign companies.
The NIA is striving to reposition itself as a government agency designed to do its work for the public and government with expertise and service mindset, thus helping government agencies benchmark themselves with desirable role models.
The NIA is the first government agency to operate programs designed to build up an exemplary knowledge and information provider for moving customers. The programs include a customer satisfaction survey, a regular customer monitoring system and operation of the NIA's Freddy Award to employees chosen by the customers for an excellent service.
The NIA is seeking to ensure a sustainable management beyond innovation and ethical management.
The agency received the Korea Management Grand Prize in ethical management category from Korea Management Association and topped an integrity survey of subsidiary government institutions of the Ministry of Information and Communication by Korea Independent Commission against Corruption last year. The NIA endeavors to ensure sustainable development by taking the initiative in conducting social contribution activities on top of clean, transparent and ethical awareness.
Q: The 20th anniversary of the NIA's founding is January 30. Will you comment on your agency's vision in celebration of the 20th anniversary?
A: The NIA will reflect on the past 20 years and declare challenges for the coming 20 years during the 20th anniversary ceremony. The agency will release the NIA's 20-year chronicle, present a copy to the MIC minister and hold a homecoming event for celebration for the former and current employees.
The NIA's history is synonymous to that of Korea's national information.
The agency has been recognized for contributing to the nation's information by providing assistance in the national broadband network buildup, successful implementation of e-Government projects and establishment of a master plan for creating u-Korea. A small group of 20 the NIA officials spearheaded the construction of the national administration network, the biggest project since Korea's liberation from Japanese colonial rule. Making the most of the experiences and confidence it has gained during the information process, the NIA has successfully carried out diverse projects like the high-speed telecommunication infrastructure buildup project and e-Government projects toward the construction of a welfare state. The NIA staff's dedication has laid a foundation for developing Korea into an IT powerhouse. Korea has gained a reputation as Korea ranked was No. 1 in terms of broadband information infrastructure for the fourth year in a row, placed fifth in the UN's e-Government Readiness for the second straight year and topped the Digital Opportunity Index for the second straight year.

By capitalizing on the experiences and expertise accumulated for the past 20 years, the NIA is putting more energy into constructing a ubiquitous society in which all the people will bask in and national competitiveness will be enhanced through IT industries.
Q: What new aspects have been achieve since the name change?
A: The name change is in line with the standing of a government agency making preparations to meet the demands of the times in run-up to the launch of ubiquitous society. As the National Computerization Agency, established in 1987 for the purpose of information and computerization of the nation, fulfilled its functions, the NIA is now making a new start with new missions and needs of the times for the construction of ubiquitous society in which Korea is about to usher.
The NIA reorganized its operation to one office, five divisions and 25 teams, a move to achieve its vision and goals as an agency designed to take the lead in constructing ubiquitous society buildup and providing knowledge and information services,
last November 1 following the name change.
The most notable change is that such functions as management planning, innovative strategies, general affairs and financing are combined to inaugurate the Office of Management Innovation in a bid to converge separated innovation duties for an acceleration of management and efficiency.
The IT Strategy Team is newly established to raise efficiency in information society by disseminating IT technology to each part of society and make the most use of IT technology for the advancement of the service industry. The U-Planning Team has been expanded to make predictions of a future society in the next 10 or 20 years and strengthen such functions as strategic planning.
Q: Would you elaborate on major projects the NIA will implement this year?
A: The NIA set the 2007 budget at 613.1 billion won, 3 billion won more than last year'with the goal of accelerating the Ubiquitous March.
First, the NIA will place priority on developing strategies for the construction of u-Society. The agency will focus on materializing strategies in line with the MIC's vision "Unified Hope Korea via Digitalization"while recommending to the government ways of solving such pending issues as an improvement of living quality and application of IT technology in the service industry.
Second, the NIA will endeavor to build up ubiquitous infrastructure. Diverse service models were test-operated during the Broadband convergence Network Project Phase I between 2004 and 2005. The NIA plans to provide support for the commercialization of developed services during Phase II that will be implanted by the end of this year. About 40,000 households who have no access to broadband internet services in farming and fishing areas across the nation will be covered by fixed line and satellite to complete the nationwide high-speed information network by the end of this year. The agency is seeking to work on research of future u-infrastructure like Future Network, u-Mobile and IP-USN (Ubiquitous Censor Network).
Third, the NIA will work on u-service projects. It will explore u-City service models, certification and standardization to build up u-City infrastructure. The NIA will turn to projects for creating RFID/USN demand as well as u-service projects in the areas pf life safety, education and leisure to advance a leap into u-KOREA.
Fourth, the NIA will work out next-generation e-government vision and action plans and continue digitalizing the state's major administrative information to upgrade e-Government in Korea to the world's best one. Thirty-one projects for furthering e-Government with investments of 384.2 billion won have been successfully completed.
Fifth, the NIA will provide a guide for solidifying Information Technology Architecture infrastructure and consulting services on performance management. The NIA, as an ITA-specific agency, will educate 300 officials from government and public organizations to raise their capabilities for their implementation of ITA, and review a plan on the introduction of ITA, submitted by each institution and measure ITA diffusion.
Sixth, the NIA will endeavor to develop a u-IT cluster.
Q: Would you comment on the achievements you have made while at the helm of the NIA for the past two years and tasks to be implemented for the remainder of your term?
A: One of the major accomplishments I have made while at the helm of the NIA is the successful completion of the Korea Information Infrastructure (KII); involving the construction of about 20,000 km fiber optic cables in 144 areas for 11 years between 1995 and 2005 with 800 billion won worth of investments. The NIA served as a project manager of the KII project, which expedited the information of 32,000 public organizations and contributed to establishing a foundation for developing Korea into an IT powerhouse.
Second, the NIA, as a government agency responsible for e-Government development, has provided technological support and performed its roles as a master project manager in having elevated Korea's e-Government to fifth place in the UN's e-Government Readiness.
The 31 projects on the participatory government's e-Government Roadmap to further development of e-Government will be finished within this year to cap the government's administration reform.
Third, the five-year u-Korea development plan between 2006 and 2010 has been drawn up, government policies have been determined, and Ubiquitous IT Korea Forum has been formed up. The NIA has fortified its position as a leader of u-Society through the development of mid- and long-term policies for the construction of u-Society.
The most important thing that the NIA will have to implement in the years to come is a function of establishing mid- and long-term futuristic strategies. The NIA is seeking to prepare diverse strategies through the study on the development of the future, explore tasks through prospects of ubiquitous society and systematic, detailed implementation plans. Korea is working on the construction of a new infrastructure corresponding to the futuristic society. The NIA plans to continue exploring and nurturing such core infrastructure industries as Future Network, u-Mobile and IP-USN. A study is under way on the development next-generation e-Government models with the goal of realizing ubiquitous e-Government after finishing the ongoing e-Government projects. In an effort to solidify the information of the private sector, such projects as grafting IT technology into the service industry will be continuously nurtured as a national agenda.
Q: Are there any problems concerning the government's policies on information and if any, what are the solutions?
A: The government's systematic initiative for national information has led to the establishment of a foundation for developing Korea into a world-class IT powerhouse. In particular, the IT industry has been serving as a driving force behind economic growth as it has contributed to more than 40 percent of the overall economic growth.
However, such malfunctions of information like the digital divide have been worsening. Emerging issues such as low birth rate/aging population, bi-polarization, slow down of economic growth, pollution and energy depletion are tasks that IT industry will have to tackle.
Accordingly, Korea needs to develop information policies and strategies on the solutions to the pending social issues such as improvement of people's living quality and economic recovery by capitalizing on the experiences and expertise the nation has accumulated through the construction of IT infrastructure and exploration of next-generation growth engines.
To this end, utilization of the existing IT technology should be raised along with a move to create new added values through combination of IT industry and innovations.
Korea also needs to adopt a strategy for implementing IT technology into areas that will emerge as the growth engines in the future. For example, recognizing the global awareness toward the significance of the service industry, it would be more effective to adopt ways of creating new values and raising a competitive edge by upgrading the overall standing of the service industry through a convergence of IT technology into the industry.
Recognizing the reality, the NIA is striving to develop more dynamic and effective information policies and strategies, as it inaugurated the IT Strategy Team in the recent reorganization.
Q: What do you think the solutions for the duplication of IT policies each government agency adopts?
A: Government agencies may be mistaken for duplicating IT policies as IT technology is recognized not only the info-tech industry but also infrastructure of every industry, even though there seems to be duplications.
An attempt to avoid duplications and ensure a clear-cut division of business turf could undermine national competitiveness and cause a crisis since disciplines tend to be blurred, making division a thorny problem.
In the case some areas are duplicated, they need to be readjusted according to the circumstances of the global market. There is also a need for inaugurating an institution designed to coordinate any redundancies with capabilities and determination.
The development of the IT convergence industry should be proceeded as a pan-national project regardless of the invested right of a specific government agency and its selfishness. A comprehensive planning and coordinating regime involving several ministries, not the single one, needs to be arranged to lay a groundwork in consideration of industrial paradigms and master plans of the future.
Q: Are there any solutions to the security problems of e-Government?
A: Many experts agree that security is the much talked-about topic of e-Government. They cite problems related to security policies.
Figures released by the Ministry of Planning and Budget show that the budget for the information of the ministries of the central government amounted to 3,456 billion won, but the budget for implementing security-related projects accounted for 101 billion won or a meager 2.9 percent of the total, quite lower to the levels of advanced countries ranging from 5 percent to 8 percent.
External and internal experts examine the security issue in the course of implementation of e-Government projects and a plan is under consideration to independently manage the security-related budgets. Korea needs to strengthen security capabilities even though the nation's e-Government readiness does not lag behind any country.
An overall review into budgets, personnel, organization and coordination systems should be made as part of efforts to upgrade e-Government security protection to one level upward, and the NIA plans to work on the study on e-Government security protection in consultation with the Ministry of Government Administration and Home Affairs.
Q: What'se the future direction for implementing e-Government projects and plans?
A: The next-generation e-Government is predicted to shift from the current Internet-based e-Government to u-Government that will allow people to receive government services and participate in government policy-making process anytime anyplace. Consumer-oriented, non-stop services will be offered around the clock through diverse access mobile channels such as PDA and TV beyond the existing Internet-based realization of e-Government.
The NIA plans to carry out projects designed to upgrade e-Government in line with the implementation of pilot ubiquitous projects like U-City, USN, mobile RFID and home network projects in a bid to realize ubiquitous e-Government.
Korea needs to increase competitiveness of the domestic IT firms and expedite industrial development to export e-Government projects abroad in consideration of Korea's e-Government standing while stepping up cooperation with international organizations like the UN and OECD. nw

NIA President Kim Chang-kon

NIA President Kim meets with Mexican Amb. Leandro Arellano and 3rd Secretary Adrian Garcia on Feb. 21, 2006.

NIA President Kim shakes hands with chief Bangladeshi delegate, vice finance minister Mohammad Mahbubur Rahman on Apr. 20, 2006.

NIA's Seoul office building

The NIA's new corporate identity.

Korean and foreign experts discuss e-Government during the seminar, titled "e-Government as a Tool for Participation & Transparency"jointly organized by UNDESA, IIAS, NIA and MOGAHA.