ED Crucial human resources
Korea ought to strengthen development of ICT talents
The world has entered into the Fourth Industrial Revolution, which heralds revolutionary changes in everyday life and provides humankind with a turning point in the history of civilization. This planet is shifting rapidly toward an intelligent and information society where everything is connected and fused into one.
Despite this reality, Korea is failing to take the lead in the stream of the times. In the Fourth Industrial Revolution, China has risen to stand shoulder to shoulder with Japan while Korea is lagging, experts say. If the revolution turns into a stage for the U.S., China and Japan, Korea will suffer from technological dependency, too.
The World Economic Forum ranked Korea at 25th place out of 129 countries concerning its preparedness for Fourth Industrial Revolution. It's a dismal situation, indeed. The most urgent task facing the nation is research and development of science and technology.
It is against this backdrop the Ministry of Science and ICT announced it would invest 4.31 trillion won ($3.84 billion) into the R&D related to information and communication technology this year, an increase of 250 billion won from last year's 4.06 trillion won. Most noticeable was that it allocated the lion's share of 1.42 trillion won to basic research, followed by 719 billion won for the R&D of ICT, 614 billion won for creating R&D infrastructure, and 182 billion won for training an ICT-savvy workforce.
Few would deny that Korea should focus on acquiring basic and source technology, instead of application knowhow, to ensure sustainable growth based on substantial technological power.
No less crucial is the cultivation of a talented workforce, however. One can never overemphasize the importance of human resources even in this high-tech era. We welcome in this regard the government's plan to cultivate science and technology students through implementing science-gifted education programs and helping female scientists and technicians return to R&D jobs.
We hope the Moon Jae-in administration will try its hardest to create a researcher-oriented R&D environment, attain innovative growth, adequately prepare for the Fourth Industrial Revolution and create more jobs, for the eventual purpose of enhancing quality of life.