Stiff competition will continue to challenge industry
The most important function of the National Information Society Agency (NIA) is to map out mid and long term plans for the upcoming ubiquitous society, Kim Changkon, president of the agency, said.
Noting that the future society will be a highly developed and intelligent society, going beyond a simple information society, Kim said that the NIA will prepare new infrastructure, technology, industries and systems for ubiquitous society and recommend necessary steps to the government.
In an interview with Korea IT Times, Kim said: "The NIA will carry out longterm and professional support activities for successful implementation of the 'u-Korea basic plan' that the Ministry of Information and Communication announced for the upcoming ubiquitous society."
He commented on the agency's name change in October last year to the NIA from the National Computerization Agency (NCA) by saying: "The NCA was established in 1987 to develop and standardize computer technology and accelerate informatization. However, the new NIA is aimed at fulfilling its role as a leader of the ubiquitous society by spreading advanced IT technology to every corner of our society."
Key achievements of the NIA
The NIA, which congratulates its 20th founding anniversary in 2007, has built a foundation for Korea to emerge as IT superpower. "In particular, the NIA has built super-speed IT infrastructure in the country, making Korea the world's No. 1 nation in the super-speed Internet penetration ratio," he said.
During the 11-year period from 1995 to 2005, the NIA established about 20,000 kilometers of up-to-date optical cables in 144 regions in the country. This project has greatly contributed to accelerating informatization of 32,000 public institutions. Another big achievement of the NIA is the construction of e-government.
For the past 20 years, the NIA successfully completed mid and long term projects for the construction of e-government over five times. Consequently, the e-government level of South Korea advanced to fifth in the world under the U.N. appraisal, he said.
Ubiquitous society
The government has been exerting best efforts to prepare for the upcoming ubiquitous society, which pursues a human being oriented society by making people's life more comfortable and affluent. As part of its efforts, the ministry mapped out the u-Korea Basic Plan.
Under the five-year basic plan, the government aims at jacking up Korea's global ranking to 15th in state competitiveness and 25th in quality of life until 2010. According to the IMD, South Korea ranked 29th in state competitiveness and 41st in quality of people's life in 2005. "During the 2006-2010 period, Korea will make a strong push for u-city construction, u-health, u-transportation, uenvironment and u-logistics," the NIA president said.
Vision 2030
At the same time, the government announced the Vision 2030 program in August 2006 in an effort to prepare for the future ubiquitous society. The vision 2030 is the nation's long-term comprehensive strategy to solve many problems facing Korea, including aging society and low birthrate.
"Korea has emerged as the 10th largest economic power in the world and its per capita GDP is expected to $20,000 in 2008.
Nevertheless, Korea's expenditures for welfare reached a mere one third of the levels of advanced countries. As a result, the quality of Koreans' life stood at the lowest level among OECD member countries and the country is now facing new problems such as bipolarization, an aging society and low birthrate," said Kim. "Accordingly, Korea plans to solve such problems through the Vision 2030 strategy, which calls for expansion of growth engines, development of high-level manpower, promotion of social welfare, expansion of social capital and active globalization, among other things," he said.
If successful in implementing Vision 2030, Korea will jump from the 41st to 10th in the world in terms of quality of people's life and from 62 percent to 95 percent in the ratio of people enjoying culture to the total people, he explained. Future-oriented growth strategy Although Korea is now recognized as an IT superpower, it is expected to face stiff competition in the global market in the near future, taking into account the endless chase of Chindia (China + India) and rapid development of such technologically advanced countries, including the US, Japan and the EU.
"To beat the stiff competition, accordingly, we should predict changes in the future society and make proper preparations. Related to this, we have decided to create the u-Korea Future Planning Committee and establish a think tank comprising 68 experts from the industry, academic and research centers, to draw the future society," he said.
e-Government
Asked about the level of Korea's e-government, Kim said that Korea has entered a high level in terms of digitalization of administrative information and informatization of government agencies.
Commenting that e-government means an advanced government system in the 21st century with a high level of productivity and transparency, the NIA president said that Korea boasts of the world's best level in terms of informatization of procurement, patents and tariffs.
For instance, Korea's e-procurement received Public Service Innovation Awards from the U.N. in April 2003 and was selected as the model case for improvement of transparency from the OECD.
The ratio of e-Settlements was 97.9 percent and the distribution ratio of e- Documents was 97.4 percent in 2005. The comparable figure stood at 92 percent for e-Bidding ratios and 99.6 percent for the purchase of procurement materials. Meanwhile, Korea's patent network was singled out as the model for informatization of intellectual property rights by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in December 2001. Thanks to such efforts, Korea ranked fifth in terms of e-government according to a U.N. report, following the US, Denmark, Sweden and Britain.
"As the superiority of Korea's e- Government was widely known for the global society, a number of developing countries are trying to benchmark the nation's system or seek close cooperation," said Kim, adding that among the countries are Vietnam, Mongolia, Uzbekistan, Colombia and Cambodia.
"Related to this, we are actively pushing ahead with exporting Korea's e- Government system to foreign countries. For example, Korea established IT cooperation centers with such Latin American countries as Mexico and Chile and is enhancing the status of its e- Government system through close cooperation with global organizations, including OECD, APEC, ADB and World Bank," he said.
AEvangelist of Hope
The 57-year old Kim, who passed the state technician examination two times and served as Vice Minister of Information and Communication after working at major posts of the ministry, is also widely known as the Evangelist of Hope among his juniors and students.
Delivering lectures based on his experience at colleges, he has stressed on positive, active and bright minds, saying that successful persons do not complain of their environment and other conditions, and instead, they are always seeking or creating the environment that they want.
While talking with young generations he often says: "Have dreams, hope, courage, and a challenging spirit. The bright future is the share of those preparing for the future."
Since taking office as the head of the NIA in May 2005, Kim has been pushing for e-mail management and friendship management to deliver his management philosophy to employees through active communication and seek harmony among executives and staff members.
Along with this, Kim said the NIA will continue propelling customer-oriented management in keeping with the agency's vision to become a customer first professional service institution.
