SEOUL, KOREA – Korean President Lee Myung-bak will officially wrap up his five-year presidency at midnight on February 24. As President Lee conceded, people are divided over the performance of the current government. The Lee administration pulled Korea though two global economic crises and hosted the G20 Summit, but it dismantled the Science and Technology Ministry and the Information and Communications Ministry, sinking so much tax money into the Four Major Rivers Restoration Project. Besides, the Lee administration is blamed for further widening the gap between large companies and Korean SMEs.
President Lee’s 747 plan (GDP growth of 7%, USD 40, 000 per capita and making the country as the world's seventh largest economy) was grounded a long time ago.
Calling for a small government, President Lee dissolved the Science and Technology Ministry and the Information and Communications Ministry, thereby sapping Korea’s future growth potential.
Above all, the Korea Communications Commission (KCC), embroiled in political issues such as the selection of general programming cable channels, put the task of fostering ICT, Korea’s future growth engine, on the back burner.
Furthermore, the Lee Administration’s preference for large companies in hopes of the trickle-down effect on SMEs produced the exact opposite results of what was intended.
Sean Chung (hbpark@etnews.com)
**Article provided by etnews [Korea IT News]
[Reference] : http://english.etnews.com/electronics/2715655_1303.html
