Korea's IT industry is already worldrenowned for its mastery of existing technologies and its high quality mobile and display devices, but what will happen next on the peninsula is anyone's guess. And while anyone can guess, some experts are more likely to be right than others.

One of the best such experts is Lee Byeong-gi, professor at Seoul National University and President of the Korea Information and Communications Society.

In a recent interview with the Korea IT Times, President Lee spoke about the future of IT growth in the Korean peninsula and the changing role of different organizations responsible for the phenomenal growth of the Korean information technology industry.

The first question asked of Professor Lee was about the next growth engine of the Korean economy, whether the third generation technology of mobile phones could be the next major cash cow for the peninsula.

He responded by saying that the next step for the Korean economy to continue to grow was to let go. "We need to establish a nongovernmental IT strategy to plan for another leap of IT growth," he said. In the past the government has done both macromanagement and micromanagement of the Korean IT sector. He said that the government is too restrictive in this age of rapidly changing and converging technology.

"The government has been doing a good job in the past up until we got a full-fledged market ourselves, which has become one of the top 12 in the world," said the Professor. "But with all these factors, the role of government should be different."

Professor Lee thinks that experts in the communications and information technology fields should form a non-governmental think-tank group in order to continue to guide the industry, but in a quicker and more flexible fashion. The government is not the expert in technology or in the management of technology anymore, according to him, due to the fast pace of the changing world market and the high level of experience and insight developed by the leaders of the respective IT fields.

Whither the government goes

When asked whether the government should stop all efforts regarding the IT industry, he said no. "What the government should do is to get involved where the market does not function right, coordinating and arranging some appropriate regulations for a healthy market." President Lee went on to say that unnecessary or outdated regulations are a hindrance to the market and industry, but that some regulations are necessary.

The government's role can continue to be very important to the growth of the industry, but much differently. Citing the newly emerging technology of IPTV as an example, the President explained: "What happens is that some readily existing infrastructure hinders the appearance of new types of business."

He went on to say: "For example, cable TV companies would like to avoid sharp competition with the newly emerging IPTV, so they claim that IPTV should be regulated in the same way as cable TV." In this case the government's necessity and role are both clear - it should coordinate and set new rules for fair competition among different interest groups, which, at the same time, encourages the growth of new technologies.

Another important role of the government in the future of the IT industry would be to manage the frequency spectrum and monitor fair competition among different business units. Professor Lee spoke about the importance of the frequency spectrum which is a very precious resource to be shared among all people, or all consumers, fairly.

If it is going to be auctioned to some business sector, the resulting revenue should be used for the common benefit of all the consumers, not for the government or other sectors.

In monitoring IT business units for fair competition, Professor Lee said, the government must represent the interests of the consumer first, to offer choices and avoid the unfavorable position of higher payments and a lack of choice that would ultimately kill innovation.

A third continuing responsibility of the government, Professor Lee expects, could be to support the launching and independent operation of a non-governmental, IT experts-centric, strategic planning committee so that it can lead the future direction of the Korean IT business and industry.

He pointed out government-driven strategic planning needs to be ended with the 839 Strategy and the future should be determined by the market and the non-governmental expert groups.

But Lee stressed that "Every company has its own view, every company knows better about the IT market, they know where to invest and where to not invest. Let them use their money wherever they want."

Software possibilities and problems

The conversation turned from the role of government to the next step in the growth of the Korean IT industry. When asked about the software industry as a possibility, President Lee said: "I hope, I hope. I think that we have been waiting for that for some time. But perhaps some cultural structure hinders that."

He said that the possibilities of Korean software would be a good homework assignment for interested parties. He mentioned that Korea already has some of the prerequisites for a strong software industry, a smart and dynamic workforce. However, there were some drawbacks to a strong development of software due, one being a smaller potential market. He said that it might be necessary to expand the immediate market outside of the peninsula in order to develop a Korean software company.

He also brought up a potential cultural problem with the idea of software as a whole. He mentioned the idea of service as the retail concept of giving free bonuses to customers in order to maintain business in Korea. "Software is something that comes automatically when you buy some hardware.

We seem to be provided with software by hardware." He said that the market in Korea used to expect software for free to such a degree that it actually hindered the growth of software companies. He expressed concerns that the Korean IT industry would be hindered in its growth as a whole if it was unable to further develop the software industry.

And what about 3G

President Lee was also asked about the possibility of 3G technologies being the next growth engine of the national economy; however his response was not favorable. "The 3G [technologies] are not providing as differentiated services as we saw when 2G came out," he pointed out. "I'm not very much interested in 3G, because the services I can get additionally are not what I am interested in." He viewed 3G mobile technologies as more of a gradual evolution of existing solutions with a higher data rate rather than a dramatic revolution in lifestyle, and as such would probably not prove to be so profitable.

As a closing question, the Professor was asked about his opinion on the possible USKorea Free Trade Agreement and its impact on the Korean IT industry. He said that compared to the automobile or agricultural industry, which are at opposite sides of the impact spectrum, the IT industry would probably be affected very little by a free trade agreement. In his estimation there are already few inhibiting factors to IT trade, and therefore can have very little benefit from a free trade agreement.

In conclusion, the future of the Korean IT industry is still uncertain in some aspects. But with a paradigm shift towards a nongovernmental think tank based policy generation and operation, with less government regulation and more private sector direction, the industry can make another leap to outpace both itself and the other industries in the country. Looking to the future, the possibilities are endless and the outlook is positive that Korean IT will continue on its rapid growth.nbsp;