Science and ICT Ministry to focus on technology, job creation

Now that its Minister is formally appointed, news about specific activities planned by the new Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning is being published.  As noted by Yonhap News, the "super ministry"  plans to focus a great deal of money and effort in the coming several years on technology upgrades and job creation.  Also, The Korea ITTimes is reporting that the ministry plans to spend KRW 31.5 billion nurturing IT talent.  It reported that "The Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning (MSIP) will plough KRW 31.47 billion into fostering IT and IT convergence experts. The MSIP said Sunday it will provide KRW 22.17 billion to universities’ IT research centers and KRW 9.3 billion to projects aimed to nurture highly-skilled workers in the IT convergence sector.The MSIP’s two projects, “Support for University IT Research Centers” and “Project to Nurture Highly-skilled IT Convergence Experts,” will benefit about 2,200 college students and nearly 180 companies’ IT and IT convergence researches respectively. As for Support for University IT Research Centers, each beneficiary (university) will receive KRW 600 million to KRW 800 million annually over the next four years to make sure universities produce excellent IT workers in a sustainable manner and effectively carry out industry-academia joint R&D projects. This year, a total of 30 universities will be covered by Support for University IT Research Centers."