S. Korea to spend 189 tln won to strengthen IT sector

By Lee Joon-seung
SEOUL, Sept. 2 (Yonhap) -- South Korea will spend 189.3 trillion won (US$151.5
billion) over the next five years to strengthen its competitiveness in the
information technology (IT) sector, the government said Wednesday.

The Presidential Council for Future and Vision said funds will be injected into
five core areas, covering IT conversion, software, leading IT industries,
broadcasting and communication, and Internet infrastructure.
Of the total, to be spent by 2013, 14.1 trillion won will come from government
coffers with the remaining 175.2 trillion won to be invested by the private
sector, the council said in a meeting chaired by President Lee Myung-bak.
State funds are to be spent to help small- and medium-size enterprises conduct
research and development, with 109.7 trillion won worth of private investments to
be allocated for production and industrial infrastructure.
In the IT-industrial conversion field, efforts will be made to merge traditional
manufacturing businesses such as ships, automobiles and energy production with
cutting-edge advances in IT to enhance competitiveness.
South Korea is the largest global producer of ships but its dominance is being
challenged by Chinese yards. Korea is also trying to expand its market share in
autos and power generation -- especially in atomic energy and "smart grid"
systems.
The new program is also designed to help South Korea hold onto and expand its
share of the semiconductor, display panel and mobile phone markets, the council
said. The country is the world's No. 1 manufacturer of memory chips and displays
and ranks second in the production of handsets.
The five-year strategy calls for the creation of nationwide, super-high speed
Internet infrastructure able to transmit data at 1 gigabit per second -- 10 times
the speed of current broadband lines. It also seeks to introduce a fully digital
television broadcast system by 2012, aiming to foster the widespread use of
wireless broadband (WiBro), Internet protocol television (IPTV) and
three-dimensional TVs.
The council said WiBro and IPTV technology could help create new audio-visual
markets and spur consumption and investment vital for economic growth.
The government will also concentrate resources on developing the local software
industry, which has struggled to keep pace with new developments in hardware. The
goal is to push eight of the best-performing local software firms into the global
top 100, and help 27 South Korean companies pull in individual annual sales of
over 100 billion won.
yonngong@yna.co.kr
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