ABSTRACT
As of 2009, Korea has attained the global rank of ¨©eenth in terms of economic outputs. (In 2003, Korea attained the global rank of eleventh in terms of GDP.) Such rapid economic progress within 40 years is noticeable when considering that for a similar level of economic progress other industrial nations usually took more than a 100 years of historical processes. A©er experiencing dramatic successes in the heavy chemical, shipbuilding, automobile, and steel industries, recently high value-added and knowledge industry products such as semiconductors, liquid-crystal displays (LCDs), and mobile phones are leading Korea’s economic
growth. Ÿe IT industry in particular has been a driving force for Korea’s economic growth since the 1997 Currency Crisis. IT is closely associated with the rapid productivity growth in the manufacturing and service sectors which focused on radical process improvement and e¦cient resource utilization. In 2004, 50% of the GDP growth was attributed to IT’s contribution (Kim and Jung, 2005). Since 1999, the Korean IT industry’s annual growth rate is 17.7%, which far exceeds the global average. In a sense, the Korean IT industry enabled Korea to overcome its economic crisis (November 27, 1997 to August 23, 2001) and is regarded as its core driving force for economic leaps. In brief, the Korean IT industry has positioned itself as the vital growth engine for the healthy growth of the Korean economy (ETNEWS, 2005.12.26).
