Launch of Industry-Centered 'Contactless Economy Standard Open Forum'
"Public-Private Cooperation Standardization... Leading the Digital New Deal"
[Asia Economy Reporter Moon Chaeseok] The government and the private sector are jointly embarking on the development of standards to lead the contactless economy in the COVID-19 era. They will promote international standardization of contactless services in fields such as healthcare, education, and distribution/logistics. To this end, they plan to invest 37 billion KRW by 2025 to develop 50 standards and establish a 'Digital Standards Demonstration Center.'
The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy announced that it held the launch ceremony of the 'Contactless Economy Standards Open Forum' at 2 p.m. on the 29th at the Westin Chosun Seoul Hotel in Jung-gu, Seoul.
The event was attended both online and offline by about 100 members from industry, academia, and research institutes, including Minister Sung Yun-mo of the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy and Lee Hak-seong, advisor of LS ELECTRIC and chairman of the forum.
Following the Ministry’s establishment of the 'Contactless Economy Standardization Strategy,' a private forum was formed centered on the industry. The goal is to support the 'Digital New Deal' by promoting standardization of contactless services and technologies.
The forum was organized to develop national and international standards by sector such as healthcare, education, and distribution/logistics; to discover business models based on standards; and to propose policies to enhance standardization activities in the contactless economy. Advisor Lee serves as chairman, and the Korean Standards Association operates the secretariat.
Priority will be given to international standardization of the three major contactless services: healthcare, education, and distribution/logistics. The Ministry plans to invest 37 billion KRW in standard development by 2025. Through this, 50 standards will be developed and a 'Digital Standards Demonstration Center' will be established.
International standard development for K-quarantine related mobile self-quarantine management applications and fresh logistics packaging technologies for vegetables and pharmaceuticals will be jointly promoted with relevant ministries.
Standards for daily life necessary for contactless activities such as video conferencing, digital contracts, unmanned workplaces, and remote meter reading will be developed and disseminated. A system will be established to demonstrate the safety of contactless service implementation technologies such as 3D printing, robots, and drones, thereby advancing performance standards.
The forum also announced immediate institutional improvement measures such as contactless testing and certification, trade finance, and recruitment support.
From the end of next month, KS contactless testing and certification will be implemented. Considering cases where on-site visits by examiners during KS and KC certification audits are difficult, contactless audit and interview procedures will be introduced.
An online direct insurance and guarantee program for trade finance and export marketing will be launched. Online product exhibitions will be expanded from Southeast Asia to North America and Europe.
On this day, the industry presented successful cases of commercialization through international standardization of contactless products and services.
LS ELECTRIC, which holds the forum chairmanship, internationalized 'Rapinet,' the only domestic industrial Ethernet communication technology that can integrate and operate data communication between smart factories or existing factories. This technology was also applied to automobile manufacturing plants.
Kwon Dae-hyun, deputy general manager of LS ELECTRIC who is participating in international standardization, received a presidential citation on World Standards Day in 2016.
Minister Sung said, "The contactless economy era accelerated by the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) demands a new transformation," adding, "If we secure international standards for the contactless economy, where there is no clear dominant player, Korea can emerge as a rule setter shaping the contactless economy era."
He continued, "We will actively support expanding and discovering business models through international standards, like the successful standardization cases announced at the forum, so that they can become new growth engines for Korea’s contactless economy."
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