During the period starting this year to 2010, the Ministry of Information & Communication (MIC) will invest a total of 695.4 billion won to promote IT parts and materials business for a continued growth of the IT industry. The ministry announced on January 11 a government "measure to elevate the competitiveness of IT industry's parts and materials business" to strengthen R&D capabilities in the IT sector and intensively promote IT-SoC (System on Chip) business. The measure came as part of MIC's basic policy to transform IT parts and materials business into a high value-added industry by securing a price edge while redressing its dependence on imports caused by the lack of original technologies in core IT parts and materials. The ministry said the plan was finalized following a series of hearings made after it was put up on November 24, 2005 at a ministerial meeting. According to the plan, the ministry will build up a support system that can render assistance to IT-SoC business from its planning stage to marketing and secure core IPs (semiconductor design modules) for their joint utilization by SMEs. To secure future markets, the plan also seeks to reinforce the research on basic technologies with regard to IT parts and fusion, the cores of IT systems. Under the plan, the IT-Fusion and Components Laboratory that newly opened at ETRI on January 1 this year is expected to play a key role. For laying down a foundation for the growth of IT parts and materials, the ministry said it will conduct surveys and analyses on trade data of key IT parts for export and utilize them in setting up of policies designed to meet special needs of IT parts businesses. In so doing, the ministry intends to foster a workforce of some 5,000 technicians and researchers in addition to 1,000 designers by 2010. The ministry also said that it will exert efforts to create new markets for IT parts and seek the early adoption of WiBro and other services, such as 'Digital Home,' outlined in the IT839 project. If the IT parts promotion scheme goes according to schedule, the ministry anticipates it will have the beneficial effect of replacing imports worth 1.5 trillion won.