When a veteran science and technology administrator speaks, industrialists and policy makers must listen carefully. His experience and wisdom are an invaluable asset to the government he once served, as well as to academia or the business community to which he currently belongs. From his experience, businesspeople and policy makers can learn about what mistakes or successes the country made. From his wisdom, they can learn about what they could or should do for the next generation.
“ICT is infrastructure for all people. It’s important for us to take the initiative to expand the vision of future technologies. We need to seek a second technological leap forward in conformity with the government’s Green Growth policy,” said Dr. Yang Seungtaik, chairman of KDC Group and a former Minister of Information and Communication. “The point is, we need a market that can reproduce information on an enlarged scale. We will be able to keep producing top-class products, if we handle everything with pride as industrialists of Korea, an ICT powerhouse.” He made the remarks in a special lecture for KDC executives in early October.
“It’s necessary to develop a market to which most people can gain easy access. Creating new markets is by far the most important job we have to do, making the most of the country’s existing infrastructure,” he also said. “The country has achieved more than 90 percent success in establishing hardware infrastructure and thus laying a technological framework for further achievement. But regrettably, we can’t say we have a perfect business foundation yet.”
Informatization
He began his lecture titled “Informatization: Korean Experience” by presenting statistical data showing that as of 2007, Korea really was an ICT powerhouse with 74 percent of Koreans using the Internet, 90 percent carrying mobile phones, 72 percent using digital mobile services, and 93 percent using online banking services. Korea’s ICT production accounted for 29.7 percent of the GDP and contributed to 30 percent of the GDP growth and to 34.4 percent of the country’s total export volume.
He said, “Korea has the highest broadband Internet penetration rate in the world with 90 percent of homes using the services. The country has created the first ubiquitous digital communication environment. Simply put, the combination of these two digital networks completes the most essential infrastructure for a knowledge-based information society.”
How Korea Did It
Korea has been successful in winning such a high broadband Internet penetration rate. According to Yang, Korea developed its ICT industry in four stages. The first stage was the Bootstrap Stage in which the country tried to build nationwide confidence in ICT technology. The second was the Informatization Stage where the country started e-government services. The third was the Ubiquitous Network Stage in which it developed CDMA technology and completed a seamless digital network. And the last was the Public Participation Stage in which the government made efforts to win the public’s voluntary participation in laying a nationwide Internet network.
Ubiquitous Network
In order to further develop its ICT industry, Korea should introduce an economic mobile broadband system; create a new digital industry by creating a prosumer environment; make the environment business-friendly by improving the digital testbed for the creation of new business; and establish an information-age education system.
He reiterated, “Establishing a ubiquitous network is what we’re supposed to do. The strategic task facing us is to seek a second technological leap forward through innovative, up-to-date future-oriented technologies such as IPTV, WiBro, and RFID.”
“The ICT industry is still a leading force in Korea’s entire industry. Industrialists should rely on the government for policies and systems. But they should develop or change the market by continuously bringing forth new ideas,” Yang concluded in his presentation to KDC executives.
