Ministry of Science and ICT Holds Briefing on 34 Billion KRW Cloud Supplementary Budget Project

[Asia Economy Reporter Seulgina Jo] The Ministry of Science and ICT announced on the 1st that it held an online 'Cloud Project Mid-term Review and Supplementary Budget Project Briefing' worth 34 billion KRW together with the National IT Industry Promotion Agency and the Korea Information Society Development Institute.

This event was organized to share opinions among companies participating in the cloud activation project regarding their performance status to enhance project outcomes, and to provide guidance on the supplementary budget project to enable prompt project implementation once the supplementary budget is confirmed.

First, the Ministry of Science and ICT explained the supplementary budget project plan promoted as part of the "Cloud Industry Development Strategy" approved at the 16th plenary meeting of the 4th Industrial Revolution Committee on the 24th of last month, and urged active participation from companies.

To supply innovative and diverse cloud services in five sectors?manufacturing, logistics, healthcare, education, and non-face-to-face welfare?a 'Cloud Flagship Project' involving more than 10 companies centered on cloud infrastructure firms will be promoted as a supplementary budget project worth a total of 25 billion KRW, with 5 billion KRW allocated per project.

Additionally, a 'Cloud Voucher' program is planned to support small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in digital transformation by providing up to 20 million KRW per company for cloud adoption consulting, transition costs, and usage fees, with a total budget of 8 billion KRW.

During the briefing, following the explanation of the supplementary budget project, presentations and Q&A sessions were held regarding the performance status of major tasks under the 'Cloud Computing Industry Promotion' project, which is currently being implemented with a main budget of 29.3 billion KRW in 2020.

One of the global cloud service company development tasks, the 'Southeast Asia Microfinance Cloud Service (led by Bankware Global)' project, is developing cloud services for small financial institutions, and through commercialization, it is expected to export to developing countries such as the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, and Myanmar, achieving sales exceeding 100,000 USD by the end of the year.

The 'SME Cloud Adoption Expansion' project, led by the Inno-Biz Association, has supported cloud service usage fees for about 800 companies since March and plans to support an additional 1,000 companies' cloud usage fees by the end of the year.

As a leading public sector cloud project, a 'Budget and Accounting Integrated Management Cloud Service' that standardizes and enables integrated management of local governments' budgets and accounting is being developed. After pilot application to 13 institutions under Suwon City, plans are underway to expand it nationwide to local governments. Suwon City expects related work processing time to decrease from 22 hours to 10 hours per week and maintenance costs to reduce from 222 million KRW to 94 million KRW through this initiative.

A Ministry of Science and ICT official stated, “Cloud is a foundational technology that utilizes data and artificial intelligence to digitally transform society as a whole, and its importance is increasing,” and added, “The supplementary budget project is being prepared so that the call for proposals can proceed immediately once the budget bill passes the National Assembly. We especially designed it reflecting diverse opinions from the industry, so we ask for active participation.”