Korean technocrats weigh in at OECD meeting

Second Vice Minister of Science and ICT Cho Kyeong-sik

High-level Korean government officials discussed the adoption of a global digital tax and ways to bridge the digital divide during a meeting hosted by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

Deputy Finance Minister Yoon Tae-sik argued for a minimum digital tax rate of 15 percent for Korea-based manufacturers at the OECD’s Ministerial Council Meeting, which ran from Oct. 5 to 6 in Paris.

The OECD is working to broaden the scope of the digital tax to include consumer goods makers as well as IT service companies like Google and Amazon.

Second Vice Minister of Science and ICT Cho Kyeong-sik called for global policy coordination to foster an inclusive digital transformation and the creation of a life-long training system tasked with mitigating the digital divide.

Cho met with his French counterpart Minister Cedric O of State for Digital Transition and Electronic Communication to discuss bilateral cooperation in the areas of AI, 5G and quantum technology.

The two leaders agreed to jointly conduct research projects with leading tech institutions.

The potential participants cited included the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI) in Korea and National Institute for Research in Digital Science and Technology (INRIA) in France.

Song Kyung-hee from the ministry’s AI policy division delivered a presentation on how Korea implements ethics standards for the use and application of AI.

BY PARK EUN-JEE [park.eunjee@joongang.co.kr]