Gov't vows to expedite 4th industrial revolution

By Yoon Sung-won

The government will drastically ease rules on information and communication technology (ICT) industries including drones, autonomous driving, healthcare, cloud computing, big data and the Internet of Things (IoT).

Presided over by President Park Geun-hye, the government held its fifth ministerial meeting for regulatory reform at Cheong Wa Dae, Wednesday, to discuss its drive to prepare for the new technology-based industrial paradigm, dubbed “the fourth industrial revolution.”

“We cannot foster new industries without regulatory reform,” Park said. “Through regulatory reform, we can boost creativity in the private sector, maximize investment and deal with problems in each industry without expenses, like killing three birds with one stone.”

Science, ICT and Future Planning Minister Choi Yang-hee said, “We will discuss and cooperate with the office of government policy coordination and other relevant authorities and continue to improve regulations for ICT industries.”

The government will basically allow drones and autonomous-driving cars everywhere, except for restricted areas where their presence may undermine people’s safety and national security.

Expectations are that this regulation will enable drone-based services like delivery and advertisements and bring small electric vehicles here.

In the IoT sector, the government will increase the frequency output in the 900-megahertz (MHz) unlicensed bandwidth to 200 megawatts (mW) from 10mW. This means that businesses establishing network infrastructure for IoT services can save costs.

The government will also open new frequency bandwidths dedicated to IoT networks and allow businesses to operate diverse IoT services without having to obtain governmental approval.

Aiming at boosting government agencies’ use of cloud services provided by private businesses to 50 percent by 2020, up from last year’s 5 percent, the government said it will remove restrictions in the finance, medical and education sectors.

In finance, it will allow financial institutions to make exceptions of physical network separation on business operations involving less sensitive data.

Starting this July, the government will allow hospitals to store patients’ electronic medical records on cloud storage, which will facilitate new medical services such as telemedicine.

The Ministry of Education will remove educational institutions’ obligation to have server hardware next month, allowing them to use cloud computing to provide distance education.

The government will also set up guidelines on the handling of personal data. The guidelines will stipulate standards on personal data de-identification, a process that keeps a person’s identity separate from data.

It will also ease rules on prior consent, to increase the public agencies’ penetration rate of private big data services to 37 percent by 2020, up from 15 percent last year.

In the online-to-offline sector, the government will allow taxis to have GPS-based electronic metering devices starting next month, allowing customers to pay the taxi fare through a mobile app.

To boost the accommodation-sharing business, it will extend their maximum operation days to six months a year, up from four.