Policy Statement
by
Dr. Jun-cheol Yang
Director General, Ministry of Information and Communication 
Republic of Korea

Tuesday,19 March 2002

Honorable Chairman of the conference
Director of the Telecommunication Development Bureau, and
Distinguished delegates,

It is a great pleasure for me to be here today and to share my views on the issues of IT development with such distinguished participants.

The world is transforming into a "knowledge based Information society" with the rapid development of digital technology and the Internet.

Such a development and growth of IT technology and the Internet does not always promise us with a better new world.

Most notably, the digital divide, which is caused by various reasons, emerged as one of the most urgent tasks for us to solve.

The Korean government geared tremendous efforts in Informatizing the nation under "Cyber Korea2" and "e-Korea" initiatives.

As a result, we were able to link the major 144 cities with high- speed communication network at the end of 2000.

The number of Internet users stands at 24 million as of end of last year, which is over half of the total population.

Furthermore, 7.9 million households are subscribed to the broadband Internet service, which is over 55% of the total households, showing Korea's remarkable achievement in such a short period of time.

However, as I mentioned earlier, there is a digital divide between classes, regions, ages and income level and the Korean government is doing its best to make sure no one is left out in accessing information.

For instance, we are building networks that enables us to provide broadband Internet service to rural areas, and we are providing the Internet service free of charge to 10,400 primary, middle and high school.

In order to expand opportunities for rural residents in accessing information, we have community information centers running in small cities and regions and are providing computers to low income class at a low cost.

Also, the ten government ministries have established an education plan for 10 million citizens and have started to provide Internet education to housewives, physically challenged and the elderly.

The rapid progress of Informatization may lead to a digital divide of knowledge-based society between developed and developing countries from an income disparity that exists in the industrial society.

In this regard, we have raised the issue of resolving the digital divide through ASEM and APEC.

At the same time, we have been supporting the developing countries in promoting their informatization.

I would like to briefly introduce some of our initiatives.

We have been training IT human resources with Asia Pacific Telecommunity (APT) since 1998 and are actively pursuing ahead with "Internet Youth Volunteer project" that aims to support the people in developing countries fully utilize information and the relevant infrastructure.

In particular, president Kim Dae Jung proposed to set up an "East-Asia Digital Bridge project" at the Asean+3 Summit in 2000 and we are focusing on the follow up measures.

We are also joining hands with other countries in building a global network such as "APII test beds" and "Trans Eurasia Information Network" in order to exchange information and knowledge among countries.

We need to resolve the downsides to Informatization through a comprehensive approach such as technology transfer, financial support, and human resource development.

Korea is more than willing to share our knowledge and experience in building a digital welfare society and would like to contribute to enhancing the quality of life for people throughout the world.

Lastly, I hope that we can have an in-depth discussion over ways to set the future direction and vision in which the world's IT Development sector should be headed in the next four years.

Thank you.