Minister Choi Ki-young: "Digital New Deal is about building a 'Data Dam'... Creating Services and Jobs"

President Moon Jae-in visited Duzon Bizon, a big data platform operating company located in Chuncheon, Gangwon Province, on the 18th. After receiving an explanation about innovative services combining data and AI, he moved together with Minister Choi Ki-young of the Ministry of Science and ICT.
[Photo by Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Seolgina Cho] Choi Ki-young, Minister of Science and ICT, stated on the 19th, "The Digital New Deal is about creating a virtual dam called the 'Data Dam,'" adding, "Just as water stored in the Soyanggang Dam is used for agricultural water, industrial water, and power generation, collecting a large amount of 'data' can create various services."

Minister Choi appeared on CBS Radio's 'Kim Hyun-jung's News Show' that morning and said, "Data is the crude oil of the 4th Industrial Revolution." This explanation followed President Moon Jae-in's visit to a data and AI company in Chuncheon City the previous day as part of the first on-site action of the 'Korean New Deal,' where he mentioned the Hoover Dam, a symbol of the U.S. New Deal policy, and used the term 'Data Dam' for the first time.

Minister Choi explained, "The 800 billion KRW investment included in the third supplementary budget, which is under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Science and ICT, is mainly for the Digital New Deal," adding, "The three elements we call D.N.A?Data, Network, and Artificial Intelligence (AI)?must go hand in hand." He emphasized the importance of data, saying, "Among them, we are paying considerable attention to the data sector. As mentioned with the Data Dam, data is the basic energy source that can create various services, so much so that it is called the crude oil of the 4th Industrial Revolution."

He continued, "This data can be used for big data analysis or AI applications," adding, "Simply collecting any data is meaningless, so information must be available, a lot of manpower is needed, many jobs are created, and networks must be well established. The budget reflected in the supplementary budget is for these purposes."

However, regarding concerns that offline jobs may decrease due to the activation of non-face-to-face industries, Minister Choi said, "President Moon Jae-in also expressed great concern about this yesterday," adding, "Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the digital transformation is happening faster, which indeed causes significant side effects and difficulties." Nevertheless, Minister Choi explained, "Despite that, the New Deal reflects the idea of actively and proactively establishing countermeasures for this digital transition."

He said, "To gather a large amount of data in the Data Dam, many jobs are needed, and those jobs are actually ones that anyone can do," suggesting that these could replace jobs lost offline. He added, "The job increase expected from the supplementary budget is 550,000, and the jobs created by the Ministry of Science and ICT in the digital sector are 43,000," noting, "Creating 43,000 jobs will serve as a catalyst to generate even more jobs."

Minister Choi pointed out that not only job reductions but also digital divide issues may arise, and he identified education as the most important solution. He said, "Providing instructors and supporters at existing SOC living facilities such as community centers for vulnerable groups is another form of job creation," adding, "We aim to create many jobs there and reduce the gap through education," and explained, "We are also promoting the development of user-friendly devices and software."

He predicted that the COVID-19 vaccine could be available as early as the second half of next year. He added that clinical trials to repurpose existing drugs as COVID-19 treatments would take about two months at the earliest.

Regarding discussions on imposing network responsibility on overseas operators such as Netflix and YouTube, Minister Choi explained, "It includes the idea that value-added communication service providers like YouTube, which use existing internet networks to provide additional services, should consider user difficulties," adding, "Overseas operators are required to have representatives in Korea, so there are issues with effectiveness."

On the introduction of a Google tax and related matters, he said, "There is some concern about violating FTAs, so we must be cautious, but there is an issue of an uneven playing field," pointing out, "Domestic operators doing business in Korea pay taxes, but overseas operators just conduct business over the internet." When asked whether he personally believes taxes should be imposed on such overseas operators in the future, he replied, "Although cautious, I think fairness must be considered because of the uneven playing field. It's not necessarily about imposing taxes, but the uneven playing field issue should be resolved."

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