President Kim Dong Wook of the Korea Information Society Development Institute (KISDI) attended Seoul Conference on Cyberspace 2013, which took place at COEX in Seoul on October 17-18, as the lead discussant of the first panel discussion with a topic of “Economic Growth and Development”

The Seoul Conference, the third of its kind following the first in London and the second in Budapest, focused on six agendas: Economic Growth and Development, Social and Cultural Benefits, Cybersecurity, International Security, Cybercrime, and Capacity Building under the main theme of “Global Prosperity through an Open and Secure Cyberspace.”

The speakers of Panel Discussion 1 included Yoon Jong-Lok, Vice Mnister of Science, ICT and Future Planning, Lee Sirgoo, co-CEO of Kakao Corp., Jørgen Abild Andersen, Chairman of OECD’s ICCP Committee, Olatunbosun Tijani, CEO of Co-creation Hub, Iizuka Hisao, Chairman of Telecom ISAC and Virgilio Almeida, Secretary of the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation in Brazil. 

During the discussion, President Kim highlighted that cyberspace evolves dynamically in response to ICT advances, socio-economic development and demand fluctuation, and emphasized the need to accommodate the demand generated especially in the ageing society as well as the public health and environment sectors. He also added that, to this end, further discussions on the principles and policies on cyberspace on a global level are required. Concluding his remarks, President Kim called on the panelists and audience to deliberate on how to address various social and economic development gaps for the economic growth and development in cyberspace. 

At the end of this two-day meeting, which was attended by around 1,600 people from 18 international and regional organizations, multiple research institutes as well as businesses in 87 countries, adopted the “Seoul Framework for and Commitment to Open and Secure Cyberspace.”

As the host of this year’s Cyberspace Conference, Korea was recognized to have played a leading role in building global consensus and setting a future direction in the early stage of establishing an international order for newly emerging cyber issues, and also to have substantially contributed to raising awareness of cybersecurity at home and abroad.