In international IT exhibitions like CEBIT, CES and ITU Telecom held around the world, if there is one nation continuously in the spotlight, it is definitely Korea. Korea is a test market prized among global IT leaders and IT firms, as well as a popular destination for many businesses planning to establish a presence in Asia.

The recognition enjoyed by Korea speaks volumes about just how effective and forceful its IT promotion strategies of the past decade have been. This is only the beginning, however. Efforts to further cement the position as the advanced IT nation are incessant and accelerating in Korea.

B roadband IT Korea Vision 2007 is one such initiative, to realign Korean strategy with latest IT trends and new offers of the technological and market environment. During the implementation of this policy, new vertical and horizontal value chains have surfaced, and IT839 is another strategy created to incorporate these elements.

It is the belief of the Korean government that these IT policies should ultimately serve the goal of equitable distribution of the benefit of the digital revolution among all Koreans. The Korean government is furthermore committed to reducing the digital divide around the world, everywhere it appears, and plans to actively assume its role as a full-fledged IT leader.

With the quantum leap of internet-based industries, we have been witnessing the profileration of various forms of unauthorized use of personal information. Infringement on privacy rights most often takes the form of collecting and passing on personal data to third parties without user consent. To prevent the leakage of important personal information such as resident registration numbers, we made the use of digital certificates mandatory for more types of online activities and transactions and put into place various other measures. We are also engaging legislative efforts to provide a legal framework for the protection of online information privacy.

The increased reliance on information infrastructure in today society makes the security and integrity of information systems a critical issue. To strengthen response systems against intrusion attempts, including hacking and virus attacks, we have conducted a system security diagnosis on 164 ISPs and other information service providers, and extended the number of organizations subject to the requirement of intrusion information sharing from 24 in 2004 to 50 in 2005.

In spite of the generally improved level of informatization, the gap is continuously widening between the nformation-rich and the nformation-poor the means and ability to access information are still reserved to certain age groups and income groups. In 2005, as an attempt to tackle the digital divide, the government conducted an information literacy program on 870,000 Koreans from information-underprivileged groups such as the handicapped and elderly. Some 23,000 units of PC and other information devices were distributed under the same program.

For information-poor areas such as rural and remote communities outside ISP coverage areas, the government is providing support toward setting up facilities to give local residents internet access. All areas with no broadband network infrastructure (240,000 households) will be covered by satellite internet service by 2007, so that high-speed network access is available anywhere across the country.

Korea small and medium-sized businesses are the backbone of the Korean economy, playing just as vital a role as the IT industry. In recent years, however, many of these companies have been struggling, faced by numerous challenges such as the continued sluggish demand, surging raw material prices and competitive latecomers like Chinese firms entering the arena. Since 2001, the Korean government has been conducting a program to help these companies network themselves, based on an IT rental (ASP) model, with the goal of boosting their competitiveness through informatization.

Since 1998, the Korean government has been inviting government officials and business professionals from developing nations for informatization trainings. To date, 1,682 high-ranking public servants, CEOs, IT experts from 87 economies have been trained under this program. Offered both as a short-term and long-term program, the training is intended to instill a mindset needed for informatization in the trainees. Moreover, under the Korea Internet Volunteers program, started in 2001, 1,346 youth volunteers have been sent to 51 economies to help improve local information environments.

Meanwhile, to facilitate information access by people in developing countries, starting from 2002, Korea opened eight information access centers (IAC) in places including Romania, Vietnam, Egypt, Philippines, Bulgaria, Laos and Tunisia.