GSMA THRIVE ASIA PACIFIC: Choi Ki-young, Minister of Science and ICT in South Korea, outlined the country’s strategy for speeding digital transformation, noting an overhaul of regulations is crucial to attracting large-scale investment.

He explained the government must prime the pump and is developing new protocols with the private sector “which will actually employ many people and make investments”.

Its strategy is to minimise conflict between stakeholders when implementing reforms.

The government established a testing environment for ICT regulations to help companies ensure new technologies and services are compliant. It is also conducting reform hackathons to promote consensus on new rules.

Choi said various sectors have expressed concern about potential job losses fuelled by the accelerating digital transformation. He acknowledged technological advances along with improved productivity typically reduces jobs in legacy industries, but noted increased employment in new areas.

This transformation requires workers to switch careers to more promising fields, which the government is backing through expansion of retraining programmes and establishing a lifelong education system to help workers shift to new industries.