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 Korea, an IT Powerhouse with Enduring Humanistic Values at its Core |
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Over the past 10 years of rapid progress in IT, Korea has achieved numerous milestones and history-making breakthroughs.
In 1996, Korea rolled out the world first commercial CDMA mobile phone service, emerging as a new force to be reckoned within the global mobile communications market.
In 1998, the world first broadband internet service was launched in Korea. Through this series of record-making achievements, Korea IT industry has come into its own as the nation growth engine.
The stunning progress of Korea IT industry is easy to retrace, with milestones such as the start of digital broadcasting (2001), launch of e-government (2002), development of pilot Wibro services (2004) and the rollout of DMB (2005).
Yet, these shining achievements have never made Korea lose sight of what truly matters. Our goal remains improving the quality of life for each and every one of our citizens through IT and making the world a better and more humane place to live. |
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 We Became a Global IT Lea |
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| IT Industry, a National Growth Engine |
| Korea IT industry, accounting for 34.8% of total exports in 2006 (equivalent to US $ 113 billion), has become a growth engine driving national competitiveness in just 10 years. Mobile phones, computers and semiconductors are among the top five export products, and Korea holds the largest global market share in DRAM, CDMA and TFT-LCD.
Five Korean IT firms, including Samsung Electronics, KT, KTF, LG Telecom and LG Electronics, are among the World Top 100 Information Technology Companies 2005 selected by Business Week. |
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| A Model e-Government |
| The Korean government e-government efforts had three principal goals: increasing productivity, fostering transparency in administrative processes, and improving public services. Organized around 11 key tasks, including creation of a consolidated e-government portal (G4C), an integrated e-procurement system (G2B), an end-to-end tax service system and an integrated national insurance system, the project came to completion in November of 2002. The implementation of e-government systems has driven up the rate of e-approval of official decisions among government agencies to as high as 96.9% (as of Dec 2004). Procurement aOverseas IT Support Centernting to 67 trillion won is handled online annually, and tax filing including payment is now done via internet. In 2005, Korea was ranked 5th globally in the UN e-government readiness evaluation, and lauded for the world community to follow. |
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| Online Financial Transactions Fast Gaining Ground |
| e-financial services accessed via the internet and mobile devices have taken hold fast since the late 1990s. Today, most Koreans conduct banking transactions, trade stocks and shop online. |
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| Online Culture Undergoes Explosive Growth Spurts |
| One of the most remarkable phenomena in Korea internet culture of recent times is the proliferation of mini home pages and blogs. These meeting points in a virtual social space have spawned an entirely new type of personalized online communities. Personalized media services of this kind have given a new status as content producers to users who have been confined to passive consumers of information. Cyworld, one of the largest internet communities, counts 13 million subscribers, equivalent to 28% of national population. |
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| Building a Progressive and Exemplary IT Infrastructure |
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| Global Number One in Broadband Penetration Rate for 4 Straight Years |
| Thanks to programs like 'Cyber Korea 21' implemented in 1999 and 'e-Korea Vision 2006' in 2002, 24.9 out of every 100 Koreans have broadband internet access, over twice the OECD average (10.2 %). Korea has ranked number one in broadband penetration rate for four consecutive years. |
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| Broad Internet User Base |
| As of December 2006, Korea counts 34 million internet users (74.8% in internet use rate), with virtually all age groups of its population from children to the elderly using the internet. With wireless/wireline integrated services like WiBro (Wireless Broadband) and next-generation networks like IPv6, the internet environment in Korea is expected to further improve, ready to provide seamless internet services. |
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| Astonishing Rate of Mobile Communications Penetration |
| In 1996, Korea became the first country in the world to successfully commercialize CDMA, which made a tremendous contribution toward the growth of its mobile communications market. |
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