Interview with Newly elect MIC(Ministry of Information and Communication) Minister : Jun-Hyong Rho

Q:As a newly elected minister, what areas are you emphasizing this year?
This will be my 4th year serving as a government official. My first and second year was concentrated in technology development sector and last year, good part of my effort was spent on testing these newly developed technologies. And this year, as a new chief, I will put my energy and focus toward expansion of marketing and distributing these new technologies, ultimately targeting overseas markets.

To carryout these ideas first, I will focus on the revitalizing existing communication market. Beefing up current IT system infrastructure to bring new investors in the market as it will be the key link to growth in IT industry.

In addition, easing up the broadcasting and communication regulations to promote various unified services to public, to minimize polarization in IT industry, will concentrate on bringing more software, medium and small enterprises or venture groups and also parts manufacturing industry to compete more in the market. Additionally, IT839* strategy will be revamped and developed to bring steady growth in IT industry in turn making it possible to knock on door of 30K GNP era.

* IT839 refers to South Korean government's economic employment tactical policy.
Where 8 refers to 8 new services WiBro, DMB, Home Network, W-CDMA, Telematics, RFID, Digital TV, VoIP mobile comm. And internet broadcast technologies, 3 refers to 3 wired or wireless communication, internet and broadcasting systems, BcN, u-sensor, Network, and Pv6 and 9 refers to next generation mobile communication, digital TV/Broadcast, home network, IT Soc, next generation PC, embedded SW, digital contents &SW solution, Tele-matics, A.I. robots.

MIC previously has set government policy 'U-Korea' with its primary strategy of IT839. What will be the next move?
Whole point of IT839 strategy is to promote developments in service-manufacturing sectors to bring up synergy effects. For instance, there was a unique case last year where mobile telephone exports were 246 million USD was made possible by linking service and manufacturing industry together. As you see, a particular strategy can be changed to cope with market changes but policy won’t change rather, it will be improved upon constantly.

If we assume that IT839 campaign was focusing predominantly in forming emerging markets to test pilot programs up to now, in future, it will be more focused on.

Especially we're geared toward hardware and software, barebones/components companies and to help both large and medium to small enterprises to develop evenly, by giving the software and IT component site industry much needed boost in respective competing market and will bring up medium to small IT venture groups through IT SMERP(Small Medium-Sized Enterprises Revitalization Program) policy.

Meantime, from now on until year 2010, production forecast of U-IT839 to be 5.76 billion dollars with supplementary value up to 2.66 billion dollars.

Our nation leads DMB and Wi-Bro technologies which brought success from competitive global market. What about the future plans to support more of these domestic companies to join in overseas markets?
DMB and Wi-Bro Phones were developed to meet mobile TV and mobile internet access needs and convenience in mind. These two technologies brought new wave of IT revolution and in recent, received many attentions from Torino winter Olympics too.

Especially in European countries due to many historical ruins, or Russia, Brazil with lot of land base to cover it is impractical to install system requiring cable lines to support wireless system. For those reasons Wi-Bro is very popular in these countries. Not only that but Italy and more than 10 other countries are considering bringing in the Wi-Bro service. Brazil and 3 other countries have already made plans to start the service within this year.

Terrestrial DMB will also get on the way in Germany with start of FIFA World Cup Soccer Playoff and its markets are reaching out to China, France, UK, Canada and India to further expand DMB system in respective countries. And to support more domestic DMB companies the Korean government will set up special department to assist them to extend their operations in overseas.

MIC expressed clear indication to support overseas operations in software and SI(System Integration) business systems companies. Could you elaborate on this?
Software sector takes 33 percent of total cost in digital convergence era as core industry mover. But in reality present domestic software companies are in some what coarse condition. If we are to strive for GNP of $30,000 era, we must bring up the software industry.

The administration considers any new opportunity seeking ventures as open source software and will put effort to expand these areas. Especially when considering governmental offices or public facilities software demand take 20 percent of whole medium to small venture groups’ businesses, there are plans on the way to make sure that fair retail prices are met and proper, public sales outlet channels and process are made in place.

Therefore in purchasing plan phase, will make up adequate budge, in contract making stage, will make sure the price is not set by lowest bids but by the fair market value and through negotiations. Also we will monitor and forecast peak software demanding period by governmental agencies and prohibit participation of larger corporations if the contracts are to be under 5 million USD.

There's current issue at hand with introduction of internet identity verification. How will you find the solution to this dilemma?
The administration already dealt with this by forming research department and had public hearings, many ideas and suggestions were collected and we have prepared amended new regulation that is suitable, namely a 'conditional identity verification' process.

This regulation is to be exercised only by major portals and if the user is new to their site, it will be used for verifying real user identity. This regulation limits the using fake or substitute ID or nicknames that are freely used.

In order to combat cyber crimes, not only policy and regulation need tune up, but Netizens need to adapt to change their behaviors. This means we need to educate them further with etiquette and courtesy within cyber community. We will promote new campaigns to cope with this issue too.

Ever since internet appeared, faster communication speed also brought internet phones, text messaging, DMB phones, IPTV to clog up the communication networks. What about the administration's take on this situation and future policy toward the communication and broadcasting regulations?
With more of communication unifications in digital realm, it might also bring adverse affect to politics, economy, social and cultural mainstreams. Therefore, most nations have concluded that present regulations are limited to a certain degree and to cope with existing circumstances they are renovating the present regulations.

I believe that our nation also have to alleviate communication regulations so the public can enjoy various and unified services, and provide new energy to related industry to strengthen publics interest. Hence, I feel the government will have to strive with that kind of goals in mind.

MIC will make constant effort to making better regulations and policies and by taking opinions from KBC(Korean Broadcasting Commission) and related agencies and industry before bringing in BCS(Broadband convergence Network) . Also MIC will concentrate on having discussions with office of secretary of state regarding communication and broadcasting infrastructures to bring better changes.

What will be Korea's IT industry's future directions and Government's roll?
Meanwhile, domestic IT industry's real GDP(Growth Domestic Production) measured 15.6% and took growth rate to 46.7% from the total, according to stats from 3rd qtr. last year, proving itself as the driving force behind South Korean economic growth. It should continue to play this major role as it brings in more opportunities for the whole IT industry in the future.

However, in order to cope with continued success, the industry will have to come up with new battle plans to the new emerging market. Newly developed technology could get caught up in a bureaucratic policies and never see a light in the market. That is why to promote future growth in the market and power the industry, afresh service are must for the future market. For that reason, government’s effort will also play the critical roll.