The Ministry of Science and ICT (MSIT) is leading the activation and global advancement of the domestic digital industry by establishing a private-sector-centered ICT standardization ecosystem.

The Ministry of Science and ICT, in cooperation with the Telecommunications Technology Association (TTA), has selected 31 'ICT Standardization Forums' to revitalize the domestic digital industry.

The ICT Standardization Forum is a private-sector-led standardization consultative body where industry, academia, and research institutes collaborate to develop and apply domestic and global standards.

The Ministry of Science and ICT has supported a private-sector-centered standardization ecosystem for 25 years, with 934 industrial, 233 academic, and 257 research institutes participating to date.

In 2024, 250 contributions were proposed to the International Organization for Standardization, 153 were reflected, 192 forum standards were developed, and 72 products applying these standards were released.

The Ministry of Science and ICT supports the ICT standardization forum this year, reflecting the specific standardization needs of domestic companies. In the process, it identified inter-ministerial and private sector needs and selected a total of 31 forums, including 8 new forums, through review.

The new forum is the 'Passwordless Alliance Forum&rsqu,' which aims to establish a global fact standardization organization led by Korea in the field of digital identity.o; and international standard response forums such as the ‘Next Generation Short-Range Wireless Communication Forum’ and the ‘DIF Mirror Forum’ were included.

In addition, standard development and diffusion forums for revitalizing the digital industry were also selected, including the ‘Virtual Convergence Generation Technology Standardization Forum’, ‘Digital Convergence K-ESG Innovation Standardization Forum’, ‘Smart Mobility Security Standardization Forum’, ‘City Bus Standardization Forum’, and ‘Intelligent Content Security Personal Information Protection Technology Forum’.

Last year, the standardization forum achieved results such as expanding the use of barrier-free unmanned ordering machines (kiosks) by standardizing the user interface (UI) such as support for the visually impaired and providing wheelchair mode, and activating real-time urban flood monitoring services by linking IoT-based urban flood measurement equipment data with the Han River Flood Control Center system.

This year, we plan to focus on developing standardization technologies to revitalize the domestic digital industry and strengthen cooperation with international standardization organizations in the future to enhance global competitiveness.

Park Tae-wan, the Director General of the Ministry of Science and ICT’s Information and Communication Industry Policy Bureau, said, “In the ICT field, standardization is a key link for delivering R&D results to the market, so a standardization ecosystem that supports active participation by the private sector is important.” He added, “We will actively support a private-sector-centered standardization forum so that our country’s ICT R&D can gain global competitiveness through standardization.”