The government will invest 563 billion won this year in projects related to its software promotion strategy, aiming to foster 250 domestic software companies with sales of 100 billion won and over 10,000 software-as-a-service (SaaS) companies by 2027.

On the 21st, the Ministry of Science and ICT (Minister Lee Jong-ho) announced a joint "Software Promotion Strategy" with related ministries at the Emergency Economic Ministers' Meeting to strengthen the digital foundation and promote overseas expansion.

Accordingly, we will fully respond to the demand for information education, including doubling the number of hours for information subjects by 2025, and support the development of basic software and artificial intelligence capabilities for all citizens, thereby establishing a universal education system that everyone can enjoy regardless of region or income gap.

The contract garden system, which will be implemented starting in March of this year, will be applied to software-centered universities and other universities, and in order to expand the education model of the Innovation Academy, the development of ‘(tentative name) Project-X’ will be completed within the year and verified and expanded starting next year.

In addition, in response to the spread of generative artificial intelligence, we will actively pursue the cultivation of advanced AI talents through global joint research and industry-academia cooperation starting next year, and by 2027, we will achieve the Software · We will train 200,000 advanced and specialized AI talents.

We will also expand investments to proactively secure future software technologies, such as hardware-aware software (HW-aware SW).

By focusing on investing in software-based technologies to secure future competitiveness, we will improve our software technology level to 93% of that of leading countries by 2027.

First, we will pursue the development of hardware-aware software (HW-aware SW) this year.

With the recent proliferation of artificial intelligence and the resulting surge in data and computing power worldwide, power consumption is increasing, and carbon neutrality is becoming increasingly important. To address these issues, it is essential to optimize and reduce power consumption of AI-related hardware, including semiconductors.

To address this, we plan to first develop specialized system software that supports low power consumption and lightweight AI semiconductors, and to establish a system software development roadmap for various hardware, such as mobility and autonomous vehicles, within the year.

In addition, we will pursue strategic software development to enhance the competitiveness of existing industries such as manufacturing, shipbuilding, and space, and expand precision software safety diagnosis to ensure safety and security from the software development stage.

To revitalize the domestic open source ecosystem, the currently operating 'Open Software Portal' will also be improved to provide related infrastructure so that domestic developers and companies can easily share information and collaborate.

In addition, we plan to expand the foundation for open source utilization by expanding support for license verification to check for copyright issues that may arise when utilizing open source and strengthening training for open source experts, thereby increasing the participation rate of domestic companies in the open source ecosystem from 52.9% in 2022 to 70% in 2027.

Software as a Service (SaaS)) will also be fostered in earnest to promote a comprehensive restructuring of the domestic software industry.

First, we will support customized programs (KRW 30.5 billion by 2023) considering the growth stage of service-type software companies, and we will also launch a new project to support the development and commercialization of innovative service-type software that applies generative artificial intelligence.

We will also support the development of service-type software available to the public, including supporting related projects to develop AI-based digital textbooks, which are scheduled to be fully introduced in 2025, into service-type software.

In addition, we plan to establish a foundation for the expansion of service-type software by introducing a new direct purchase system for service-type software this year and supporting policy financing, thereby smoothly implementing the goal of fostering 10,000 domestic service-type software companies by 2026, as announced in the previous Digital Platform Government Realization Plan.

We are also committed to fostering software companies targeting the global market. Through these efforts, including fostering small and medium-sized software companies targeting the global market, establishing a support system to promote short-form exports and overseas expansion, we plan to foster the number of software companies with sales of KRW 100 billion in the 100 billion club, increasing from 145 in 2021 to over 250 by 2027.

We will also improve the system to strengthen the value guarantee of software.

We plan to complete revisions to subordinate statutes in the second half of this year to comply with the strengthened "Software Impact Assessment System," and actively identify leading cases to expand private investment-type software projects.

In addition, the software business unit will strengthen the software value guarantee system through revisions and other measures, and will operate a public-private joint research forum in cooperation with relevant ministries.

Lastly, we are also promoting the spread of a culture in which everyone can experience and utilize software.

Software that students and citizens can participate in and challenge, such as the online coding party that 2.4 million people participated in last year. We plan to expand the program and conduct various software campaign activities to familiarize citizens with software in their daily lives, thereby supporting an increase in the individual coding experience rate from 10.3% in 2021 to 30% in 2027.

Minister of Science and ICT Lee Jong-ho emphasized, “Software is the foundation that drives innovation and growth in new digital technologies, so it is most important to strengthen its fundamentals.” He added, “We will carefully monitor key policies such as fostering digital talent, developing basic technologies, and improving systems so that we can lay the foundation for a great leap forward as a model digital nation.”