The Review of the State Policy in the IT Industry and HRD in South Korea

This article is concerned to investigate the changing nature of the role of the state in relation to industrial policy to foster the IT industry in the Republic of Korea. In doing this, it has started with economic globalization introduced to the Korean political economy since the late 1980s. It has identified in what ways the state responded to the change, and to what extent the role of the state has fundamentally been changed in the context of policy mechanism in the process towards facilitating the IT industry in Korea. In addition, it presented how the state played a role in skill formation in relation to the industrial policy. In consequence, the role of the Korean state in fostering the IT industry has fundamentally changed from that as the developmental state in the industrialization process. In the process, that the strategic co-ordination role of the state and relations between the state and private capitals and societies are very significant to achieve the economic goal is presented as results, as well as some future tensions that would encounter in the way of charting the current policies.