By  Rep. Han Sun-kyo, Chairman of the Science, ICT, Future Planning, Broadcasting and Communications Committee of the National Assembly

I am grateful for this opportunity to address the readers of NewsWorld. 

As chairman of the Science, ICT, Future Planning, Broadcasting and Communi-cations Committee, I have been asked many times about the principle of the Creative Economy, the new government’s major policy frame. For me, the Creative Economy means a fusion and mix of science & technology and information broadcasting technologies with all industries to create values, and ultimately to boost the potential growth capacity for job creation. It is, in fact, a new paradigm for economic development.

I know that many people from all walks of life are wondering what the agenda of national policies for the new government 

are. The debate on the Creative Economy has science and technology as its mother and begins with talk of industrial fusion, but in a large measure, it is the industrial fusion that is tearing down all the walls among the industries, allowing us to see flowers bloom at the borderlines of industries and change the paradigms throughout all industries, jumping over areas of science and technology.

I firmly believe in order for the Creative Economy to take firm root, all segments of society including academics, government, and businesses °™ both large and small, should get together, to create the new economy as the mother of a new growth engine. I also believe that businesses should also be pushed in the direction that people want.

In the same vein, education too should be able to lead diverse creative initiatives to produce fusion-type talented people. Destroying the walls among the various sectors is the first step toward the Creative Economy.  

As of now, we are faced with many challenges and crises both at domestically and externally and we have a lot of 

experience in 

overcoming them wisely, even problems worse than them. In order for the new government to succeed, we need a challenging spirit not afraid of failure and a systematic base to rebound from failure.

The most basic value of the Creative Economy is providing chances for those who have failed to rebound and challenge again.

The government of Finland, despite worries that its economy is at stake with the failure of Nokia in the smart phone industry, a company that shared 20 percent of the country’s economy with its R&D in IT, investment in infrastructure, and talented personnel providing top competitive power to Finland, has been able to recover from the Nokia crisis by nurturing venture start-ups as an exit from the crisis. Mobile game makers Rubio, the maker of “Angry Birds” and Supercell, the creator of “Clash of Clans,” have been able to succeed as global mobile game makers under such government support.

The example of Finland’s success appears to be the synergy created by basic reformative infrastructure and government support policies. An understanding that a venture start-up is a pleasant challenge and the building of a strong support system by the government, business, and schools to encourage youths to kick off start-ups is what lies under the success of Finland.

When the limitless challenging spirit that one can always rebound from failures can grow with the system, the young businessperson armed with ideas that remove the walls in business can grow fast in the market and provide strong support to the national economy, under a well-run circulation structure. 

Many would agree that small and medium businesses take up major roles in the Creative Economy as their advantages over others include speed and creative ideas. It is the role of the government to seek out those little ideas of small firms to see if they can help grow the economy, getting away from an economy designed only for the existing large conglomerates. It would also be a good model for the idealistic Creative Economy if those small firms can achieve fusion among industries and create jobs with the government support for their small, but creative ideas.

It is challenging to continuously develop new technologies created from small ideas due to the enormous costs, but this is where the government can step in and help to popularize them under the Creative Economy strategies.

The National Assembly is ready to watch if the government can play such a role faithfully for the sake of the people and legislate various related laws and systems and supplement the laws if needed to perform its given duty fully and faithfully. Please watch us.