Since the 2000s, South Korea has rapidly deployed the latest information and communication technologies (ICTs) in the private and government sectors to become an information technology (IT) powerhouse, but in recent years, it has not been able to stand out in core IT fields such as artificial intelligence (AI), data, and platforms, making it difficult to say that it is an IT powerhouse, despite being an IT infrastructure powerhouse.
 
On September 6, Electronic Times held a special roundtable discussion on "Korea's Digital Re-emergence" to mark the 41^st anniversary of its founding, and experts from various fields, including attorney Tae-Eon Koo of LIN, the chairman of the Presidential Committee on Digital Platforms, Yoon Hye-jung, head of the Korea Data Industry Promotion Agency,Jang Hong-sun, vice president of SK Telecom, Kim Yong-jin, professor at Sogang University, and Yeon Hyun-joo, head of the Life Research Institute, discussed the direction of Korea's digital re-emergence and ways to secure competitiveness.
 

(Attorney Tae-eon Koo, LIN)

At the event, attorney Tae-Eon KOO of LIN, one of the leading IT lawyers in the legal community, said that although Korea has great advantages in terms of human resources and information and communication technology (ICT) infrastructure, and possesses world-class infrastructure, it has not yet reached the level of advanced countries in the IT field, and pointed out that one of the reasons for this lack of performance is the severe level of regulations that constrain digital change.
 
This is an era of private-led growth, not government-led growth, and while private companies like SpaceX are pioneering new technologies and business fields in the U.S., technologies like autonomous robots in Korea are being held back by privacy laws, and these regulations are a prime example of what's holding back digital transformation, suggesting that a fundamental paradigm shift is needed to make the regulatory system more private-led for Korea's digital re-emergence.
 
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