-Generating \1.5 Trillion in Sales, Contributing Much to Industrial Advancement- According to a report by the Institute of Information Technology Assessment (IITA), an IT infrastructure support project jointly conducted by MIC and IITA are showing outstanding results in recent years. The 'IT Infrastructure Support Project' is a project launched to help small and mid-sized companies make headway in 'informatizing' their organizations, and thus bringing in an increase in productivity and empowering their competitive strengths. The project, which provides financial assistance in the form of long-term financing at low interest rates, is offered to those in need of funds to reshape their managerial infrastructures and manufacturing facilities into those that are friendlier to the 'Information Age'. According to a third party assessment, IITA said, the project, which began in 2002, is considered to have been very successful. During the three-year period from 2002 to 2004, a Return on Investment (ROI) analysis has revealed that a total of \149 billion in investment has generated \1.5894 trillion in sales, more than 10 times the invested amount. Prior to the project, the average sales amount of those companies that participated in the project stood at about \25.2 billion. The comparative amount of sales after the project's termination, however, rose to about \32.7 billion, posting an average sales increase of \7.5 billion, an increase of about 30 percent within a period of just one to three years. According to an inter-industry analysis, the project's spinoff effects on the economy, too, had a production inducement effect that amounted to \5.3587 trillion while value added inducement effect totaled \2.1213 trillion along with the creation of 42,716 new jobs. As a result, it is evaluated that the project had contributed considerably in elevating the overall competitive strength of the economy with positive effects on society in terms of accumulating knowledge as well as making an industrial advancement. Based on such achievements, MIC plans to further strive to transform Korea into an IT leader by expanding assistance in reshaping corporate infrastructures, and particularly those in manufacturing and service sectors in order to accelerate 'informatization' of non-IT companies still lagging in the field.