However, a recent announcement at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Switzerland regarding the Network Readiness Index (NRI) in 2006 concerned many Koreans involved in the IT sector.
Many are worried about whether Korea is really an IT power globally. In the WEF's NRI ranking announced recently, a criterion which measures IT competitiveness of each country around the world, Korea held the 19th rank last year following the 14th position in 2005.
Denmark and Sweden rose to first and second respectively, according to this NRI ranking. What concerns Korean even more is that Korea was behind competing Asian countries such as Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Japan.
In the light of the fact that WEF's NRI ranking is highly respected as a measure which gauges IT technology development and competitiveness by nation, Korea's 19th position is proof that our IT competitiveness has greatly retreated.
Korea's declining NRI ranking is attributed to the government's excessive regulation and legal problems such as complex incubation procedure, low venture capital availability, IT market regulation and low level's of infrastructure, according to experts.
Hence to strengthen IT industry's competitiveness, the government should lift regulations and correct insufficient legal and institutional problems as soon as possible.
Nevertheless, the Ministry of Informatization of Communication (MIC)officials refuted: "Through IT, a favorable circumstance which can create new value across entire fields such as politics, economy, society and culture at large, has been forged."
In connection with Korea's informatization advance, MIC officials diagnose that the informatization is shaping up from its quantitative expansion stage of Internet dissemination and becoming a qualitative side of efficiency improvement of our society at large and for the nation's information utilization ability boost.
As a result, Korea has outwardly become a leading IT country both nominally and virtually in which the dissemination rate of high-speed Internet reaches 80% of the country and 73.5% of the entire nation uses the Internet.
The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in Switzerland also measures each country's synthetic IT development with the Digital Opportunity Index (DOI). In this Index Korea has held the first position for two consecutive years in 2005 and in 2006.
Regarding Korea's informatization degree in the world, Korea was actually the number one country in the Digital Opportunity Index in 2006. As of July 2005, Korea's Internet usage rate was also second in the world at 72.8%. In the national informatization index as well, Korea holds the third rank in 2006 plus the fourth position in the world with 26.4 people out of every 100 subscribing to high-speed Internet as of June, 2006. Thus, there are of course many positive sides for us because Korea is at the head globally in terms of corporate Internet utilization degree, high-speed Internet subscribers, and low Internet subscription fees.
A second life, or Cyber World, is being created in Korea on the groundwork of developed IT technology and the highest levels infrastructure in the world.
For instance, the online music market at 185 billion won (US$197 million) exceeded offline market profits of 183.3 billion won (US$195 million) in 2003. Internet banking transaction rates at 31.6% also topped the counter teller usage rate at 30.1% in 2005.
So in a nutshell Korea's IT industry has two opposing facets, as it is assessed to take the lead in both Internet utilization and high-speed Internet subscribers while lagging behind advanced global IT powers in terms of NRI.
If we focus on Korea's positive IT statistics, we can make quite a list. Korea held the first rank in terms of Digital Opportunity Index among 180 countries in 2006 following the first position among 40 countries in 2005.
The Digital Opportunity Index was established in 2005 to compare information society disparity between nations in order to benchmark developing countries' economic development. Incidentally Japan, Denmark and Iceland held second, third, and fourth in DOI ranking in 2006 respectively.
In the light of the UN e-Government index too, Korea held onto the fifth position among 191 countries in 2004 and 2005 following 12th position in 2003.
As an index which measures e-Government preparation states, this UN e- Government index calibrates web assessment, IT infrastructure, and human capital investments.
In 2005, the United States, Denmark and Sweden held the first rank, the second rank, and the third rank respectively. IT industry's contribution degree in Korea reaches over 40% of the entire economy growth since 2000, posting 25.2% in 2001, 26.3% in 2002, 51.3% in 2003, 42.5% in 2004, and 46.6% in 2005.
Furthermore, IT exports from Korea accounts for over 30% of all exports and IT trade figures have also increased over three times during the latest five years.
