National Assembly Stronger support, human resources needed for Korea's IT venture firms The government should create a more favorable environment for IT firms and start-ups to help them compete with large enterprises on an equal footing, according to Rep. Rim In-bae, new chairman of the Science Technology Information and Telecommunication Committee of the National Assembly. He said that the domestic IT and venture companies have experienced unbalanced growth, which means that the qualitative growth is insufficient compared with qualitative growth. In an interview with the Korea IT Times, he said, "In the course of unbalanced growth led by the game and manufacturing industries, the sectors that led the existing growth have reached saturation point. On the other hand, they are facing many difficulties in creating new demand." In particular, Korea's IT and venture companies lost price competitiveness in the low-price market owing to the rapid growth of Chinese companies. Accordingly, their profitability in the future is uncertain and their fresh investment has been dampened. As a result, the government needs to create an environment where domestic IT and venture companies facing serious difficulties to compete with large companies on an equal footing, he said. At the same time, it should actively foster creative small and medium start-ups that can create high value-added through active financial support and improve the M&A environment for such smaller startups. In particular, as the domestic market has already reached saturation point, Korea's IT and venture companies should strengthen global marketing and concentrate their energy on creating new demand. As part of such efforts, the mobile special zone as a test bed is expected to fulfill an important role related to global marketing. Along with this, it is important for value-added of software to be connected with that of manufacturing again for new growth engines. As a result, the government should seek to implement policies to support this. Of course, as a prerequisite, investment in basic technology should be expanded. "If these efforts are made, the committee will spare no efforts to extend active assistance and support to IT and venture companies facing serious difficulties. I am confident that these companies will become the nextgeneration growth engine," he said. Asked about the mobile special zone promoted by the government, Rim said, "I have a somewhat negative view of the plan as the Ministry of Information and Communication has pushed ahead with the project in a way different from earlier expected. Some people suspect that the government hurriedly announced the plan aiming at the May 31 local elections and is trying to pass the plan after the election. Related to this, I cannot help but think that former Minister of Information and Communication Jin Dae-jae used it as one of his election pledges, while running for the governor of Gyeonggi Province as the candidate of the governing Uri Party." He went on to say, "The special zone should have a clear conception and standards for establishment. However, the government hastily announced that it would cost a total of 1 trillion won, boosting heated competition among local governments to attract the zone. It is the main reason behind the criticism that it was a pork-barrel project aimed at the local elections after all." Moreover, the ministry is reportedly receiving reports on the surveys on demands for the mobile special zone and mobile-related infrastructure situation of each local government. Some people regard this as the ministry's intention to set up the special zone in a metropolitan area. In this regard, the MIC minister apologized at the standing committee of the Science Technology Information and Communication Committee of the National Assembly for causing confusion and excessive competition by announcing the plan without concrete and detailed contents. He also said the government would come up with concrete plans, including an idea on the change of the title of the mobile special zone, around August. The mobile special zone that will lead the global mobile market with advanced technology and services should be decided not by the influence of the central government or a political logic but by efficiency and an economic principles, said Lim. On the recent trend of avoiding the science and engineering sector, he said that the 21st century is a knowledge-based era where knowledge creates value added, widely different from the capitalbased economy of the 20th century. In the knowledge-based era, securing excellent manpower in the science and technology sector sways the fate of a country and its importance will exceed such material factors as capital and technology. In particular, such competitors as China and Taiwan armed with active investment in the science and technology field have been chasing Korea. Considering the reality that the nation's technology gap with the competitors is narrowing and a growing number of Korea's manufacturing companies are moving their factories to foreign countries, the core strategy to cut out their chase and catch up with advanced countries is the development of science and technology. Unfortunately, however, the exodus of talented people from the science and technology sector has been accelerating, so it is urgent to employ strategic measures to secure high-quality manpower in the science and engineering field, he said. Concretely, we should seek ways to expand tailor-made education at companies and universities and set up a manpower-mediating center in the science and engineering field. Secondly, retired researchers can be used at small and medium-sized enterprises and the government can support job activities of female manpower. Thirdly, it is need to revamp the state examinations for higher officials in technology and promote the successful candidates of the state examinations to a responsible post. Fourth, enterprises need to expand the ratio of executives in charge of science and technology and offer various incentives to those engaged in basic science and technology sectors.

The following are excerpts from the interview with Rep. Rim In-bae, new chairman of the Science Technology Information and Telecommunication Committee of the National Assembly: Q: Would you give your impressions of being appointed as the chairman of the Science Technology Information and Telecommunication Committee of the National Assembly and introduce activities of the committee First of all, I think it is my great honor to have a chance to contribute to the development of Korea's science technology and information and telecommunication fields that will sway the nation's future. As the chairman of the Science Technology Information and Telecommunication Committee of the National Assembly, I will collect various opinions from the committee members and play a coordinating role, while keeping an unbiased position. In particular, the committee is dealing with advanced industries and fields that cannot avoid fierce competition with major advanced countries. As the committee chairman, I will go all-out to accelerate the development of the nation's advanced industry through rapid decision, progress and prompt budget assistance. The committee is in charge of development of science technology and national informatization through screening of bills related to science technology and information technology, inspection of administration affairs, and investigation activities. Q: What do you think is the most urgent problem facing the nation's science sector There are many problems in the nation's science technology and information & telecommunication fields. Among them are convergence of broadcasting and communication, the crisis of the domestic communication industry related to the Korea-U.S. FTA, loss of growth engine of IT-related startups and avoidance of entering the science and engineering sector. Along with this, I can cite the problem in the course of implementing science technology budgets as the most urgent matter to be solved. It is desirable to concentrate all energy on core technologies through active investment in basic technologies. To this end, securing excellent manpower is essential, so we should map out tangible and intangible measures to support the science and engineering sector. Q: Would you introduce the future plans of the Science Technology Information and Telecommunication Committee of the National Assembly Korea, which was a barren ground for the electronics industry several decades ago, has changed to a proud country exporting such state-of-theart products as semiconductors, automobiles, handsets, PDP and LCD. The main reason behind the successful change is endless efforts of talented people. Our committee will make best efforts to active foster and support outstanding talents to create a more powerful and dynamic country in the future.