According to the Ministry of Knowledge Economy of Korea, the government plans to spend 760 billion won (roughly 670 million USD) in mobile phone industry by 2015. This initiative is geared toward upgrading Korea’s wired and wireless network system, developing diverse software and key components which have been mostly imported.
The Korean government heavily subsidized the mobile industry before as I discussed in prior posts. Many lessons can be drawn through this experience. Will this administration take the lessons and reflect them in the upcoming endeavor?
Many questions can be raised on this undertaking, and of course, again, the devil lies in the details. Some sample questions may be:
-Who has benefited from the government-led R&D intervention most?
-Without a fundamental change in the Korean higher educational system in a high-tech area, how will human capital that will develop core components of mobile phones and software get properly trained?
-How have GRIs contributed to this?
-Can the government R&D investment be better spent in other areas?
-How is the state of the world economy different from that during the previous period in which the Korean government heavily invested in the mobile phone industry? We are in the middle of the worldwide economic downturn and many of the advanced economies are not in a buying mood due to several factors.
-How would this endeavor help to boost much needed job growth?
Korea has faced a technology trade deficit due to the lack of the propriety technology despite Korea’s impressive progress as a technology powerhouse. Strengthening software capacity and reducing imported parts and components have been long overdue. Efforts have been made without a great deal of success. Again, will it be different this time?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment