KISDI and the World Bank held the "Korea-Wold Bank Seminar in Japan: Mobile Applications and Services for Sectoral Development" from Dec 8 (Wed)-9 (Thu) at the ANA Intercontinental Tokyo.

The seminar served as a forum for Korea and Japan to exchange their knowledge and experience in mobile business and application, and contributed to KISDI and the World Bank's work on knowledge-based policy development guideline for developing countries.

Opened by KISDI Vice President Chang-yong Ham's commencement speech and Director Masanori KONDO (MIC)'s congratulatory remarks, the seminar was led by the in-depth discussion on the prospects of mobile business and mobile application service policy by academic experts from Korea and Japan.

The morning session started with Dr. Sang-yeol Nam's presentation on the cooperative projects by KISDI and the World Bank, followed by discussion on industry and policy implications that developing countries can derive from Korea's mobile application business. The discussion was mostly based on the results of the joint-research by KISDI and the World Bank on the related topic. Prof. Sam-yoel Lee (KISDI Research Group, Yonsei University) spoke about success and failure factors of e-Learning and e-Government in Korea, and Dr. Jong-hwa Lee (KISDI) evaluated the current status of mobile banking service in Korea and suggested implications for the developing world. In the afternoon session, Prof. Philip Sugai (International University of Japan) presented on the ecosystem of mobile business in Japan, and Prof. Makotko Yokozawa (Kyoto University) shared his analysis of the economic and social influence of mobile application and service in Japan. In the following discussion, Mr. Victor Mulas (World Bank) provided an overview on the World Bank Group's development project using mobile application and service and asked the Korean and Japanese participants for advice on future strategy-making. He also praised the seminar as providing significant contributions to the World's Bank's strategy formulation for less developed nations.

On the next day of the seminar (Dec 9, Thu), Japanese policy makers gave a briefing on Japan's policy and regulation for the mobile market in a conference room at the MIC, followed by an in-depth Q&A session. This session led participants from Korea and the World Bank and the Japanese representatives to reach consensus that the current mobile industry is driven by the private sector, rather than public sector, and that development of service that locks in customers will be the determining factor for corporate competitiveness.

After the two days of his visit to Japan, Vice President Ham said that the meeting with Japan was of great significance in that Korea and Japan confirmed their agreement on the importance of the government's role in policy consultation activities for developing countries and that the two countries shared their respective outlook on the future of IT. Director Kondo also expressed his satisfaction saying that the seminar reaffirmed the relationship between KISDI and the MIC through the sharing of experience.

Contact for Inquiry: Bo Kyeong Kim (+82-2-570-4467)