Aims to Make Korea a Digital Powerhouse

President Yoon Suk-yeol speaks at the Global Fund's 7th Replenishment Conference in New York on Sept. 21 (local time).

The Korean government has presented a blueprint to make Korea a major digital powerhouse by 2027. It plans to usher in the 6G era in 2026 ahead of other countries and become the No. 1 country in the world in terms of digital infrastructure. This is a policy roadmap to realize the so-called New York Initiative announced by President Yoon Suk-yeol in New York on Sept. 21.

The Ministry of Science and ICT announced the digital strategy at the 8th Emergency National Economy Meeting presided over by President Yoon at the Kim Dae-jung Convention Center in Gwangju on Sept. 28. 

“The Korean government will prepare systematically to make Korea a digital powerhouse based on the digital initiative announced in New York and the digital strategy announced today,” President Yoon said. “We plan to boost Korea’s AI competitiveness to third place in the world and more than double the size of the data market. We will focus investment in various strategic areas such as semiconductors, quantum computing and the metaverse to secure world-class technologies.”

The Korean government aims to jump from 12th to third place in the IMD Digital Competitiveness Index, maintain the world’s No. 1 position in the OECD Digital Infrastructure and Digital Government Index and jump from fifth to first place in the Global Innovation Index (GII) by the WIPO, by 2027.

To achieve the goals, the government plans to invest 301.8 billion won in next-generation technology development and 1.2 trillion won in core AI semiconductor technology for five years until 2026. It will more than double the size of the data market from the current 23 trillion won to 50 trillion won.

They will also focus on securing talent and human resources development. The number of classes for information technology and computer education will be double and software (SW) and AI education will be expanded to elementary and middle schools. They will also nurture one million digitally talented people by expanding SW engineering colleges and universities and graduate schools in six digital fields. It will help Korean-based global platform companies to increase to ten from the current three.

The Korean government will promote the world’s first pre-6G service demonstration in 2026 and will seek to secure 6G standard patents.


 

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