Revising Subordinate Legislation of the SW Promotion Act Reflecting Industry's Long-Standing Requests... Improving Procurement Practices and Revitalizing Private Investment

Kickoff for Gathering Opinions on Subordinate Legislation Revision Following Software Promotion Act Amendment

[Asia Economy Reporter Seolgina Jo] The government has begun full-scale collection of opinions to revise the subordinate statutes of the Software Promotion Act, which has been a long-standing request from the industry. It plans to prepare a standard contract, establish fair compensation practices to improve improper ordering practices, and minimize related requirements to activate newly introduced private investment-type software projects.

On the 17th, the Ministry of Science and ICT announced that it held a software cooperation and association meeting to discuss software promotion measures, chaired by Second Vice Minister Jang Seok-young at the Korea Press Center in Jung-gu, Seoul.

This meeting was the first kick-off meeting to actively discuss the subordinate statutes and future policy directions following the full revision of the Software Promotion Act. Twelve heads of cooperation and associations, including the Korea SW Industry Association, Korea IT Service Industry Association, Korea Commercial SW Association, and Korea SW·ICT Federation, who had long awaited the passage of the law, attended to discuss institutional improvements, difficulties, and policy proposals across the software industry.

The industry expects the software market to develop significantly through this full revision, which contains long-standing field demands after 20 years. The Ministry of Science and ICT plans to utilize the opinions raised not only for preparing subordinate statutes but also for redefining policy directions for software promotion to support software playing an essential role in the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

The Software Promotion Act, revised and promulgated on the 9th, mainly covers ▲ talent cultivation, ▲ technology development, ▲ startup and growth support, ▲ regional software promotion, ▲ fair competition promotion, ▲ improvement of public software projects, and ▲ activation of software investment.

Looking at the main contents, in the talent cultivation field, software leading schools will be reorganized into artificial intelligence (AI) leading schools, and professional personnel will be trained using infrastructures such as the Innovation Academy. In the technology development field, investment expansion will be promoted in future promising core software technologies such as non-face-to-face/digital transformation, big data utilization, and AI semiconductors.

Additionally, the requirements for designation of regional software promotion facilities will be relaxed, efforts will be made to establish regional software promotion complexes, designate regional software promotion institutions, and create fusion clusters to establish a regional software promotion system.

In the field of improving public software projects, measures such as introducing a timely ordering system, establishing fair compensation, and detailing task requirements will improve ordering practices, and activating remote development will reduce the burden on software companies. Furthermore, in the private market, a standard contract will be prepared to create a fair trade environment, and follow-up measures such as operating a reporting center for unfair task changes will be systematically prepared.

In addition, in the field of activating software investment, related requirements will be minimized to activate the newly introduced private investment-type software projects, and procedures to promote the utilization of software deliverables will be presented.

The Ministry of Science and ICT plans to hold about four continuous sectoral discussion meetings with the industry and experts by July to discuss subordinate statutes and policy directions, and based on these, will announce the legislative notice in August. The law will be enforced in early December.

Second Vice Minister Jang Seok-young of the Ministry of Science and ICT said, “Various measures to promote software, which is the core of digital transformation, are comprehensively included in the fully revised Software Promotion Act.” He added, “Starting with this first meeting, we will operate continuous discussion meetings substantively and actively reflect good opinions in policies to support the domestic software industry in gaining global competitiveness.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.