Korea's Growing IT Power

MIC Minister Rho to make sure Korea's lead in IT is sustainable

MIC Minister Rho Jun-hyong, in an exclusive written interview with NewsWorld, said Korea will expand cooperation with foreign countries in terms of IT technology development and commercialization to make sure that Korea's lead in the IT sector in the world is sustainable, especially, in the area of DMB and Wibro. He plans to expand the commercial coverage of DMB, HSDPA, IPTV and digital TV in particular this year.
Minister Rho said MIC is serious about the outcome of the OECD IT Ministerial Meeting next year in Seoul because it will set the future course for the Internet. MIC is ready to prepare for the meeting including its key agenda to build a foothold for Korea to continue to lead the future information society.
The minister said the IT839 project, in its fourth year now, will be completed after turning out such high-tech services as Wibro, DMB, and HSDPA, along with the successful commercialization of RFID and the robotics technology. Korea is only a year away from catching up with advanced countries in terms of IT and its commercialization, he said.
The government will go all out to expand the markets for various IT products by holding strategy meetings for the IT839 project and monitoring the progress of major policies to complete the project this year, the MIC minister said.
Following are excerpts from the interview:
Question: The Ministry of Information and Communication is likely to face many changes both at home and abroad this year, especially when the bill for the establishment of the broadcast and communication committee is passed in the National Assembly as expected, which will put the MIC in the center of changes. What are your plans to cope with the situation as the leader of the organization at the center of the change?
Answer: With the conclusion of the draft for the establishment of regulatory organization for integration of broadcast and communication by the government, which had been a big issue last year, things have calmed down. MIC will try hard to push the bill through parliament as soon as possible.
MIC also plans to set up the capacity of the IT sector in line with various changes in paradigm after checking them.
We will try to set the foothold for the future information society by preparing tasks and policy programs for the upcoming OECD IT Ministerial Meeting to be held in Seoul next year, a key meeting to take on the discussion to set a new course for the future for the Internet development across the world.
MIC will also try to create a new culture for Korea in line with its position as an IT powerhouse with top IT infrastructure in the world so that society will be able to take advantage of the IT infrastructure.
Q: As can be seen in new IT products shown at the CeBIT and other IT exhibitions, fusion appeared to be a dominating trend and what do you think would be the dominant subject in the domestic IT community this year?
A: "Fusion"would continue to be a key concern for us, too. Creating a national system to effectively to cope with digital convergence and the fusion of broadcasting and communication is a task that should be solved this year for the sake of our economy and the IT industry.
We have to complete various issues facing us like the reorganization of broadcasting and communication organizations, the introduction of IPTV service, and the establishment of a special law for vitalization of digital broadcasting in the name of futuristic considerations as early as possible.
It is incumbent upon us to rapidly push the completion of RFID, u-city and u-health, among others, to expedite the fusion between industries, along with a pan-government support system to back up the early industrial fusion.
Another matter is we have to be more active in promoting globalization. We have to pay more attention on the internationalization of competition regulations, M&As crossing over borders and international outsourcing of the IT production, which is expanding rapidly.
We have to touch up our core capacity to deal with the globalization trends of the IT industry.
Q: What are government support measures for communication companies to make advances overseas?
A: With the emergence of Korea as a strong IT country, many countries have asked for cooperation in the areas of IT policies, manpower and technology. We take this as a good opportunity for solidifying the IT cooperation with foreign countries and domestic IT technology and services to go abroad as much as possible. We need to have government support to enable our technologies to be upgraded to world standards like DMB and Wibro and spread out to the world's market.
Through diplomacy, the government has widely publicized the superiority of Korea's IT and service and tried to jointly share information, policies and systems with foreign countries so that they would learn our IT on the way to make its international leadership solid.
We plan to further consolidate international cooperative relations by holding meetings in the country for foreign government and private business leaders and send IT trade missions abroad and hold IT ministerial meetings in the days ahead.
Q: What would be some of the agenda for OECD IT Ministerial Meeting scheduled for next year?
A: The scheduled meeting is the first one in 10 years since the first such meeting was held in Ottawa, Canada, in 1998. With the understanding that next year would be a turning point for the Internet, the meeting would be dedicated to taking on for discussion such subjects like digital convergence, vitalization of UCC and the direction of development for IT network and their impacts on politics, economy, society and culture.
The meeting would map out the direction and vision for the development of information and communication industry and policy guidance for IT development. It will be a very important meeting for the IT industry around the world.
MIC will prepare the meeting to be a successful one through a preparation team and the organizing committee so that Korea would continue to take the lead of an IT society in the future with policy programs and agenda for the meeting to ensure its success.
Q: The age of one person one cell phone has opened and with the launch of commercial uses of HSDPA and Wibro, the age of picture-phone is being realized. What is the direction for the development of handset phone service in this regard and MIC's plans?
A: The mobile phone service has been developed into multimedia service after the fusion between voice and data communication. In the most recent development, WCDMA/HSDPA, the third generation mobile phone terminal with added function like camera, MP3, games and DMB, among others, has been moving close to create 'device convergence.'In the near future, we expect to see the creation of 'mobile convergence'which integrates IT, BT, in addition to the fusion of wire, non-wire communication, broadcasting and communication.
For instance, there will be a holographic terminal which can be worn, a large display terminal which can be folded, and bent, among others, to include most of functions of a Ubiquitous society evolving to be like 'all-in-one'equipment.
MIC will back up the development a core next-generation mobile communication and build a mobile field test bed, alongside easing regulations steadily to enable the expansion of HSDPA, and Wibro network, by making sure that investment are made in those sectors.
Q: What have been the results of the IT839 project and this year's key tasks?
A: It's been four years since the project was launched aimed at development of a new growth engine. So far, we have been able to introduce DMB and HSDPA, high-tech communication services to the world for the first time and has succeeded in turning out new technologies and their commercialization including RFID, and robots. We also have been able to advance the IT industry enough to be only a year behind those of leading advanced countries.
In particular, we have tried to further push the advancement of the software and IT parts industry. As a result, the software industry production increased 20 percent last year and the trade deficit in the non-memory trade has been reduced by 30 percent.
The IT839 project is targeted to be completed this year. DMB/HSDPA coverage will be expanded and their markets will be expanded in earnest this year when IPTV and digital TV legal systems are completed. The government will do all it can to see that the project is completed this year by monitoring the progress and holding strategy meetings during the year to make sure that it is completed this year.
Q: Last month, the MIC announced the roadmap for communication regulations policies and could you explain the back ground for drawing it up and its major details?
A: The basic idea of the roadmap is to vitalize the communication market by easing regulations in line with environmental changes and thus heighten the consumers'benefits. It also includes a design to spur investment decisions by communication systems operators by providing regulatory systems that can be predicted by the operators.
It also intends to integrate the various major communication services separated by screens into a single service system. If realized so, major communication operators don't have to get approvals by each service they operate and provide new services. It will also make easy for creating new commodities, while spurring competition among the operators.
MIC Minister's Foreign Travels:
Minister Rho traveled many countries including countries in Asia, the Middle East, the Oceania and Europe to sign MOUs on IT cooperation and explain the development of Korea's IT industry at meetings with his counterparts in those countries. He also allocated much of his time to building systematic bases for Korean's IT firms to make advances into foreign countries. The MIC Minister especially focused on introducing the airwave DMB,and mobile Internet Wibro and got the world attention by helping staging road shows and business forums.
In May last year, at the 2nd World ICT Summit, which was attended by ministers and deputy ministers from 18 countries, held discussions on the realization of digital society and the role of the government. In November, the minister attended the ITU conference and succeeded in having Korea named ITU board for 5th year in a row. nw

MIC Minister Rho Jun-hyong. MIC Minister Rho, 1st L, is in discussion with ITU Secretary-Gen. Hamadoun Toure, 3rd R., over bringing ITU Telecom Asia 2008 to Seoul at Davos Forum in January, Davos, Switzerland.

MIC Minister Rho delivers a speech at the launch of DMB during the World Cup finals in Frankfurt, Germany, June last year.