Readying ourselves for a hyper-connected society

Busan will host the 19th ITU Plenipotentiary Conference from Oct. 20 until Nov. 7. This will be the second time the world’s largest meeting of international policymakers from the information and communication sector will be held in an Asian city. The event brings more than 3,000 participants from 199 countries around the world and is expected to generate direct and indirect economic benefit worth more than 700 billion won ($655 million).

Preparation has been thorough. During the three-week conference of the quadrennial event, South Korea will live up to its reputation as one of the most advanced IT and connected societies, offering paper-free digitalized presentations and procedures powered by a state-of-the-art wireless Internet environment allowing a simultaneous connection of 4,000 devices.

We would provide a gigabyte Internet connection that is 10 times faster than the normal Internet speed. The conference will also be serviced with multichannel IPTV and 3-D holographic technology to offer the most impressive IT convention environment.

We must use the festive momentum to revitalize investment in IT and the market so that we can stay ahead in the IT global ecosystem and generate new revenue sources. Most of all, we must ready ourselves for a hyper-connected society.

Cisco predicted that Internet devices would number more than 21 billion by 2018 and global IP traffic for fixed and mobile connections would reach an annual rate of 1.6 zettabytes - more than 1.5 trillion gigabytes per year. Ultra-high definition service, big data, simulation Internet and cloud services will feed new growth for the future industry. But infrastructure investment is needed to stay ahead of the competition. We must fully demonstrate our infrastructure capacities and skills during the ITU event that brings IT experts, officials and executives all around the world to draw attention and investment in our IT potentials. Foreign investment could help accelerate economic growth and create new jobs.

If we continue to hone our competitiveness and build more value-added services from the Internet sector, we will be able to sustain our IT reputation and global status. Government and industry must join hands to develop even progress across contents, platform, network and device industry.

by Chang Kwang-soo, President of the National Information Society Agency