NIA, "Cooperating on Africa's Digital Transformation"

[Asia Economy Reporter Eunmo Koo] The Ministry of Science and ICT and the National Information Society Agency (NIA) announced on the 11th that they held an online seminar for two days starting from the 9th with the African Development Bank (AfDB).

This seminar was held at the request of AfDB to NIA to kickstart Africa's digital transformation and establish a partnership with Korea to discover and plan cooperation projects in the information and communication sector. It was conducted via video conference, with about 50 participants including ICT ministry officials from AfDB member countries and private companies.

NIA, the lead agency for the Digital New Deal, introduced Korea's Digital New Deal and public data policies under the theme of "Digital Transformation Strategy for Public Services in Africa." In the subsequent discussion, there was debate on the effectiveness of policies, such as whether the 150 types of AI training data built through the Digital New Deal by NIA could be used in Africa.

In particular, domestic cloud companies such as Naver Cloud and NHN shared cases of public cloud transition and public-private partnership (PPP) during business meetings with AfDB member countries. AfDB inquired about the possibility of Korean companies entering Africa and proposed joint research with NIA in the second half of this year to build cloud data centers within Africa. Going forward, AfDB plans to invest funds in digital transformation projects and seek cooperation methods where Korean companies participate and provide technical support.

Moon Yong-sik, President of NIA, said, "We hope to promote Africa's digital transformation in the post-COVID-19 era and contribute to closing the global digital divide by sharing Korea's digital transformation experience with Africa." He added, "Through this seminar, we laid the foundation for a close cooperative relationship with AfDB and aim to support Korean ICT companies in entering Africa, which has unlimited growth potential."

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