Grooming Korea for the future

Chin Dae-je, minister of information and communication, has been busy these days working to attract research and development centers of leading information technology firms, such as Intel, to Korea. The JoongAng Ilbo interviewed Mr. Chin six months into his term. Mr. Chin says an organization that coordinates policy among government agencies is necessary to efficiently conduct policies, such as grooming 10 industries to become Korea’s next growth engines. JoongAng Ilbo: There seems to be friction among ministries over the government plan to select and cultivate 10 industries as the future growth engines of the Korean economy. Chin: The best thing will be for information technology policy to be dealt with by one ministry. This is an era when broadcasting fuses with Internet communications. If responsibility for overseeing the industry is shared, you will lag behind the era. The most reasonable solution would be the information ministry taking charge of the information technology industry, which takes up 15 percent of industry, and the commerce ministry concentrating on the other 85 percent, which involves informatization of the traditional industries and upgrading their competitiveness. If necessary, in pursing the 10-growth-engine project, we may need a higher-authority organization that can perfectly understand policymaking in each ministry. Things got bumpy with Hanaro Telecom because large shareholders have different interests. Any intention to intervene in the matter? Unless it could cause great damage to consumers or the national economy, I will let the market handle it, even though Hanaro is declared default and put under court receivership. There will be no such thing happening as the government makes large support for some telecommunications firms in financial distress. They themselves have to do restructuring or technological development to be competitive. How do you plan to lead the government information technology policies? A: When I was a chief executive of a private company, I thought the government was concentrating too much on minor details. The government must not think about “how to do,” such as developing a certain technology, but “what to do” in the future. The 10-growth-engine project is part of that. by Choi Hyung-kyu