석호익 정보통신정책연구원(KISDI) 원장은 오는 29일 베트남 호치민에서 개최하는 정보통신정책학회 하계정책세미나(주제 : KOREA-VIETNAM Cooperation in IT Industry)에서‘Vietnam's Road to IT Success shall meet that of Korea’라는 주제로 기조연설 한다. 석 원장은 이번 기조연설에서“전 세계에서 가장 빠른 통신시장의 성장을 보이고 있는 베트남의 경우, 지난 30년간 한국의 통신정책과 IT발전 과정이 좋은 참고가 될 것으로 확신한다”고 전제하고, 베트남 ICT 계획의 성공 요소로 ▲IT 인프라 건설 ▲시장 자유화 ▲신기술 도입 등 세 가지 원칙에 대해 설명할 예정이다. <기조연설문 전문> It is my great honor to be the keynote speaker to open this very meaningful international seminar for Korea-Vietnam Telecommunications policy cooperation. First, I would like to thank and congratulate Professor Lee Kwang Chul and the KATP for organizing this event. Scholars of the KATP, many of whom are former KISDI fellows, and other institutional and business members have been great partners of KISDI and the telecommunications policy of Korea. Together we shared our expertise, and made a tremendous effort to formulate the best possible policies for many important areas. I would like to express my respect to President Tran Minh Tien of NIPTS and its members. I offer my sincere token of confidence that NIPTS will be the birthplace of many valuable market analyses and policy recommendations for the success of Vietnam's ICT sector as KISDI has contributed to the success of Korean ICT sector as our policy think-tank. In order to prepare for this speech, I reviewed Vietnam's vision and plans for its ICT industry as the country's new engine for economic development. In particular, I found the following three principles in Vietnam's plan as main success factors - Building out the infrastructure - Liberalizing the market - and Adopting new technologies. I understand that Vietnam's progress is already well under way. And it took my thought back to the late 70's when Korea was preparing our own vision and plans. While we were still at the very early stage, we had great vision and determination. Now, I see remarkable resemblance between the master plans of Vietnam and of Korea. I can vividly imagine Vietnam's bright future. From my 30 years of experience in this field, I can assure you that Korea took the similar road for our remarkable success. Building out the telecoms infrastructure was the key policy objective for Korea during the late 70's and early 80's. During this early stage, the Korean government's role was crucial in raising funds for investment through carefully designed policy measures. Since the demand for telephone-lines were high compared to the supply, Korea first took the approach to extract the value by high tariff rates which, in turn, was ardently put back to investment to create more value. The government also issued the ‘Telephone-Bond' as another source of investment fund for the telecommunications infrastructure. Once the infrastructure was in place to serve the entire country, the tariff was lowered to maximize user benefits and, as a result, Korean users now enjoy one of the lowest rates in the world. I am very glad to find that Vietnam is progressing swiftly in this area. Once the basic infrastructure is firmly in place, we may address the next issue of market liberalization. Market liberalization in accordance with the global standard is critical. Korea's involvement in WTO telecommunications service negotiations and our efforts to follow the textbook approach to a more competitive market environment turned out to be another success factor. The fruit of competition was sweet and rewarding, albeit a very difficult process. We had to work hard to take advantage of the full benefit of liberalization and competition while maneuvering the soft-landing by absorbing the shock from transforming a government-run monopoly into a competitive market. I should laude Vietnam's current efforts in WTO negotiations and liberalization policy. This is another area that Korea-Vietnam cooperation will be mutually beneficial. One aspect that Korea takes pride in competition policy is the concept of “facilities-based” competition, especially in the area of mobile and broadband services. Korea had a vision that contents, networks, and manufacturing form a ‘virtuous cycle.' Since there should be a starting point for the virtuous cycle to turn, Korean policy chose the network investment as a catalyst. Service operators' competition in advanced networks directly benefit the manufacturing sector. At the same time, The content industry blossoms in order to take advantage of these networks. It is closely related to the infrastructure build-out because it aims to maximize the effect of a market mechanism through competition in achieving a desirable level of investment for the advancement of the networks infrastructure. Having mentioned the advancement of network infrastructures, I would turn our attention to the next important policy area ? Technological advancement. Korea is one of the most advanced countries in telecommunications technologies. But, there was a time when Korea lagged behind in technology for the world standard. But the development of TDX the local exchange equipment, from 1981 and throughout the 80's, provided us with confidence. Then we pursued advancement in IP-based technology and CDMA during the 90's and in this 21st century. Now Korea is the very first country to launch the HSDPA service. Moreover, Korea is about to launch WiBro, a home-grown technology which provides broadband internet services with mobility. Telecommunications technology is fast evolving. This means that an old technology easily becomes obsolete and replaced by newer and more advanced ones. And this is the very aspect that allows developing countries a chance to “leap-frog” over more developed countries. By-passing the old and obsolete technology and directly investing in the more advanced technology allow cost savings and advancement at the same time. I may say that we are very proud of Korea's advancement in technology Vietnam is known as one of the fastest-growing telecommunications markets in the world, I can vision Vietnam will be successful as well in the near future. Korea represents the success case in telecommunications and our case is much discussed around the world. Especially, it is a model for many developing countries. There are so many detailed topics Korea and Vietnam should discuss together. But, due to the lack of time given to me, I will leave the detailed discussion to the later sessions. Instead, I would like to turn our attention to the cooperation part of this international seminar. ASEAN+3 already serves as an important international forum that provides the economic relationship for Korea and Vietnam. Within this important economic bloc, success and growth of one economy will benefit all the members by increased gains from trade and welfare gains. At different levels of the telecommunications sector, there have been numerous cooperation activities. Korean Telecommunications operators have been making investment in Vietnam - SKT, in mobile services - KT, infrastructure building. - And Samsung in manufacturing As market liberalization advances, more business cooperation will benefit both countries in the future. “IT Human Resource Development,” “Korea internet volunteers,” and the “Information Access Center for City of Hanoi” are a few examples of cooperation conducted at government and public level. There are our efforts to bridge the digital divide and exchange information as well as to develop professional network for further cooperation. I would like to emphasize, in particular, the importance of human resource development and knowledge exchange aspect of cooperation. After all, in the center of any business enterprises, technological advancement, and policy implementation, proper expertise and man power are very essential elements. While all levels of training programs and knowledge exchange have their respective merits, today's seminar has special significance because this is a new forum of Korean and Vietnamese experts in terms of growth in the telecommunications sector and related policy making. I am hopeful that today' discussion becomes the beginning of many productive discussions for the future of Korea-Vietnam cooperation instead of being the single term event. KISDI is an integral part of the KATP. I realize that NIPTS is an integral part Of Vietnamese experts and scholars. Therefore, cooperation between KISDI and NIPTS should continue among all other cooperation activities. I thank every participant and organizer for your efforts and enthusiasm. And I wish you all health and success. Thank you. 문의 : 정책홍보팀 김혜영 팀장(02-570-4421, young@kisdi.re.kr)