Resurgence of Korean IT Industry Faces Challenges

Rep. Lee Yong-kyong jointly organize a forum on smart phones

The iPhone fever does not seem to be abating as the number of iPhone subscribers surpassed the 500,000 mark in the four months since KT’s Korean unveiling of the multipurpose gadget made by Apple of the United States. KT announced its iPhone subscription figures were at 502,553 as of March 31. The debut of the smart phone has delivered a shockwave to not only Korea, once dubbed the IT trendsetter, but all around the world. Five lawmakers, including Rep. Lee Yong-kyung, jointly organized a parliamentary symposium under the title “Smart Phone Revolution and 2nd IT Renaissance” to take a look at the challenges and prescriptions for the Korean IT industry.
In a congratulatory video message, National Assembly Speaker Kim Hyong-o said, “Of late, the Korean IT industry has faced a crisis, and even though Korea has a solid hardware infrastructure, the nation lags behind in an emerging global era of smart phones and mobile Internet.” He expressed his hope that Korea will usher in a second IT resurgence. Rep. Koh Heung-gil, chairman of the National Assembly Committee on Culture, Sports, Tourism, Broadcasting and Communications, said it is the first time that five representative lawmakers from five parties have jointly organized a forum, expressing the hope that the gathering would serve as a good opportunity to help Korea make a leap forward toward returning to its position as a strong IT powerhouse.
Choi See-joong, chairman of the Korea Communications Commission, said, “The smart phone forms a new paradigm around the globe, and now is the time when Korea is concentrating all its energies into smart phone and mobile Internet industries.” He added that government, parliament and industry experts need to collaborate in legislating policies.
Chung Man-ki, director general for electronics and IT industries at the Ministry of Knowledge Economy, said, “The current crisis facing the Korean IT industry could be caused not just by the government, which is responsible for the disbanding of the now-defunct Ministry of Information and Communications as a control tower, but also by the industry, which has already entered the mature stage beyond the growth stage.” Chung made the remarks while reacting to arguments that the current government has failed to make uniform policies to nurture the IT industry. Chung said the global IT market is shifting from a hardware-oriented one to a software-oriented one, but the Korean IT industry is focused on the production of hardware, so the government does as well.
Chung said competition in such areas as semiconductors, display panels and handsets, over which Korea has a competitive edge, gets severe, and the competitiveness of software is now more important than at any time. Korea will aggressively invest in such new areas as 4G base band chips in order to nurture new breadwinners. Chung noted that the spread of the smart phone sector will raise the possibility that the mobile industry could maintain growth by serving as an incentive to induce new industries with the converging of the IT industry and other industrial fields. The Korean government and private sectors plan to establish the tentatively named Future Mobile Research Lab to devote itself to research on the mid- and long-term direction of the evolving mobile market, he added.
Lee Chan-jin, president and CEO of DreamWiz, said, “The smart phone revolution is revolutionary in an age of informatization, as BC and AD are divided, and it means that PCs at home have come into being in handsets.” Lee observed that smart phones have widened Internet usage time and the scope of Internet users and they have easier functions than PCs.
He added that arguments that if normal people advanced to the parliament, they tend to change into “abnormal people” might stem from the fact that people with louder voices may prevail due to a lack of communication, and if they participate in revolutionary communications using smart phones and “tweeting,” they could solve misunderstandings and find new ways of understanding. nw

(above photo) Rep. Lee Yong-kyung gives an opening speech at a parliamentary symposium under the title “Smart Phone Revolution and 2nd IT Renaissance.” Rep. Lee and four other lawmakers organized the symposium. Rep. Koh Heung-gil, chairman of the National Assembly Committee for Culture, Sports and Tourism and lawmakers, KCC Chairman Choi See-joong and Rep. Kang Seung-kyu chat at the session.