Microsoft's plan to invest $147 million in South Korea's information technology (IT) sector is a shot in the arm for the government and businesses vying to attract much-needed foreign direct investment. Microsoft co-founder and chairman Bill Gates announced the plan last Tuesday, while visiting the country to attend the annual Seoul Digital Forum.
We welcome the investment plan as it is expected to strengthen cooperation between Korea and Microsoft in the auto IT, game software and education fields. Meeting with Gates at the presidential office in Seoul, President Lee Myung-bak showed his interest in Microsoft's IT investment projects as well as the chairman's theory on creative capitalism.
It is encouraging that Microsoft's investment reflects Gates' views that South Korea has great potential as an IT superpower. It is also meaningful that he has accepted Lee's request to become a global adviser to the President. We hope Gates will serve as one of Lee's global advisors to help the country lead the world's IT industry.
What's attracting special attention is an agreement to forge a partnership with the nation's largest automaker, Hyundai Motor, and its affiliate Kia Motors. The partnership is designed to co-develop next-generation auto-related information technologies. The two sides signed a contract to set up an auto IT innovation center in Korea. For this, Microsoft and the local automakers agreed to invest $113 million and $166 million, respectively.
The center is seen as a model partnership between a world IT leader and Korean manufacturing companies. The auto IT industry has enormous potential as more than 80 percent of innovative auto technologies are based on IT. Microsoft, the maker of the Windows computer operation system, is supplying software programs to General Motors and other global automakers.
Gates promised to further strengthen the IT and software partnership between Microsoft and Korean companies to create as much as 7 trillion won ($7 billion) in economic value over the next five years. He also agreed to provide free software education programs to low-income communities. The agreement with Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon is aimed at helping the municipal government to narrow the widening gap in information technology between the rich and the poor.
The world is ushering in a second digital era. South Korea has been lauded as an IT powerhouse over the past 10 years, leading the broadband Internet and online games. But there is no guarantee that the country will keep its IT prowess in the next decade. It is imperative for the government and enterprises to step up their efforts to innovate technologies, forge partnerships with the world's top IT leaders and promote entrepreneurship for IT ventures.