SEOUL, KOREA — All three leading presidential candidates – Geun-hye Park, Jae-in Moon and Cheol-soo Ahn – made a pledge to establish a ministry specializing in science and technology with the 18th presidential election less than two months away. Park, of the Saenuri Party, Moon of the Democratic Unity Party and independent candidate Ahn have promised to establish the Ministry of Future Creation Science, the Ministry of Science and Technology, and the Ministry of Future Planning, respectively. They made such pledges after judging that the current Ministry of Education, Science and Technology is unable to push forward with appropriate science and technology policies to create future growth engines for Corporate Korea. Many experts point out that the current system surrounding the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology and the National Science and Technology Commission has its limits, which sounds very convincing these days.
First of all, Park championed a creative economy doctrine and announced that she will establish the Ministry of Future Creating Science. “The Ministry of Future Creating Science is expected to cover science, technology, and information technology. The new ministry help create new growth engines and decent jobs by laying the foundation for a creative economy.”
Candidate Moon of the DUP expressed his will to revive the Ministry of Science and Technology. “The Lee Myung-bak administration has weakened the future growth engine sector by abolishing the Ministry of Science and Technology and the Ministry of Information and Communication,” Moon explained.
“I will establish the Ministry of Future Planning as an organization in charge of devising Korea’s future strategies,” candidate Ahn said. “The ministry will manage a wide array of issues including science, technology, information technology, industries, and social policies.”
In detail, Park is planning to introduce IT-based Smart New Deal policies. The Smart New Deal project aims to energize sluggish industries through vitamins called “science and technology and IT.” The aforementioned policy will create new growth engines and jobs by making good use of and converging Korea’s advanced IT and IT infrastructure.
“I will create new markets and jobs by applying IT technology,” said Park. “That is to say, we will create high value added agricultural and fishery industries by utilizing IT. By mixing IT and the manufacturing industry, we will enhance the competitiveness of the manufacturing industry. IT will help the service industry create new markets and new jobs.” In addition, Park insisted that Korea should turn the software industry into a new growth engine for the Korean economy.
Park stressed that she will begin to change the public sector first. “I will revise laws and regulations to have technologically advanced firms and engineers selected for software development orders placed in the forefront by government offices,” Park said. “As a result, excellent engineers will receive good compensation while government offices will be able to use high quality software.” Another focus of Park is on nurturing developers open sources such as linux into social companies. Park also plans to create an era of brainware, a new business item that combines hardware, software, design and contents. She also promised to induce overseas venture capital to financially support promising Korean venture start-ups.
The two other presidential candidates – Moon and Ahn – did not have policies on science, technology, and IT as detailed as Park as of October 23. This is because Moon and Ahn were later in announcing their presidential bids compared to Park. The primaries of the DUP began and ended later compared to those of the Saenuri Party. Ahn also spent much time before making up his mind to run in the upcoming presidential election.
Moon has not yet announced his concrete policies regarding science, technology, and IT. However, Moon is expected to succeed the Roh Moo-hyun government’s policy to promote IT. Moon Jae-in appointed Moon Yong-in as the head in charge of the IT sector. As such, Moon is serving as head of the Digital Campaign Headquarters and an online spokesperson. Moon Yong-in also founded Nowcom, which currently offers the Afreeca TV service.
Moon Jae-in also appointed Jang Yeong-seung, a former CEO of Naum Technology in the role of special media advisor. Jang also worked at groupware, electronic document and contents companies. Moon’s position on IT policies can be shown through his appointment of these two persons who ran companies with strengths in Internet contents.
Other advisors on science, technology and IT for Moon are Roh Jun-hyeong, a former minister of information and communication, Yoo Hee-yeol, a former vice minister of science and technology and a former director of the Korea IT Industry Promotion Agency as well as Yang Hyun-mi, a professor at Sangmyung University.
At the end of July, candidate Moon visited the headquarters of Cacao, a promising IT company. During the visit, Moon promised to promote the IT industry, saying, “The IT industry is a future growth engine.” He also proposed policies to correct the monopoly and oligopoly of the telecommunication market and abolish the Internet real-name system.
In the science and technology sector, Park Gi-yeong and Kim Su-hyun are helping Moon Jae-in. Park Gi-yeong is a professor at Suncheon University, and took a leading role in developing policies on science and technology for the Roh Moo-hyun government. Kim Su-hyun is a professor at Sejong University, and served as vice minister of environment during the Roh Moo-hyun administration.
Moon’s party, the DUP announced its five major IT policies – the reestablishment of a broadcasting and telecommunication convergence control tower, the promotion of wireless internet, the support for IT venture start-ups, the development of excellent IT human resources, and the support for the software industry.
On October 10, Moon Jae-in took part in a town hall meeting at the Korea Research Institute of Standards and Science. Moon emphasized that scientists and engineers should be better compensated, and companies should provide more investment in research and development. “If I became president, I will increase the government’s spending on science and technology.” Moon added. “We have to decrease the number of irregular researchers in the science and technology sector so that they can worker better and harder,”
Since developing computer virus vaccines, Ahn has been in the IT sector as a renowned software programmer and the CEO of Ahn Lab. He has also taught technological innovation and convergence at the KAIST and Seoul National University before starting his campaign trail. One of Ahn’s buzzwords has been “innovation,” so Ahn is expected to implement policies with a focus on innovation.
In late September, Ahn visited a robot lab at Kookmin University. Ahn listened to a briefing on the development of an unmanned vehicle, and held a meeting with researchers. “These days, one big problem in the science and technology sector is that people are thinking only about quantitative results,” Ahn said in the meeting. “Therefore, an enterprising spirit is hard to find.” Ahn stressed that scientific and technological innovation should be based not exclusively on results, but on processes. “The government should tackle this matter,” Ahn emphasized. In particular, Ahn attached importance to the combination of science and technology and liberal arts. Many experts say that as Ahn has rich experiences in the IT sector, he will develop and announce his policies before the registration of himself as a presidential candidate at the latest.
