rapid economic growth, but also by the government’s active policy efforts since 2000. In 2000, the outline draft of “The 10th 5 Year Plan (2001 – 2005)” including the promotion of software development was compiled and “Policies for Encouraging the Development of Software and IC Industries” (No.18 document) was announced in order to catch up with R&D and production capabilities in the software field in developed countries by 2010. “The 10th 5 Year Plan” was formally adopted in 2001, and in the following year, “the Action Plan for Promotion of the Software Industry (2002–2005)” (No. 47 document) was announced which sets specific targets including market size, scale for the export, and the number of professional engineers by 2005 on a basis of the “No.18 document”.

Recently, an outline draft of “The 11 $ ^{th} $ 5 Year Plan (2006-2010),” which is a guideline until 2010 was formulated at the National People’s Congress (NPC) in March 2006.

## (4) Trends in ICT policies in Korea

According to the Republic of Korea’s Ministry of Information and Communication, the number of Internet users reached 33.01 million (70% of the total population) as of the end of 2005. The number of subscribers to broadband services was 12.19 million, which was still on an upward trend but the growth rate showed a significant slowdown. More and more efforts for seeking next generation services are being intensified to encourage the growth of the market.

In March 2006, the ICT Promotion Committee approved the “u-KOREA Basic Plan” as a new mid- and long-term national information and communications policy which took over “Broadband IT Korea Vision 2007,” formulated in December 2003. This plan shows the prospect to accomplish the world’s first ubiquitous society (u-society) and contribute to building an advanced nation “Advanced Korea” on the base of the world’s top-level ubiquitous infrastructure. The goal of this plan is to raise national income more than 22,000 dollars, the nation's competitive power within 15th place, and the quality of life within 25th place by 2010, and to expand a ubiquitous network environment to the whole society to establish “u-Korea” at the national level by 2015.

Additionally, from the viewpoint of the expansion and development of IT industry, the government revised “IT 839 Strategy (formulated in 2004),” which had been promoted primarily by the Ministry of Information and Telecommunication in order to keep in step with the u-Korea strategy, and announced the revised plan as “u-IT 839 Strategy” in February 2006. As with “IT 839 Strategy,” the strategy aims to make nine new major “IT Growth Engines” (including cutting-edge equipment, terminals, and the contents industry) grow as a whole by a synergy effect by using the value chain of the information and communication industry, introducing eight new major communications services at an early stage and promoting an investment in three major network infrastructures. To address issues which emerged as a result of the IT839 Strategy and changes in the IT environment, some modifications including changing target services are made in the u-IT 839 Strategy. This strategy aims for the growth at an average of 14.2% annually in eight new major information and communications services and nine new major “IT Growth Engines.”

## (5) Trends in ICT policies in India

The growth rate in the current telecommunications market in India is said to be fastest in the world. As of the end of February 2006, the total number of fixed telephone and mobile phone subscribers had reached 134.00 million, a 40% increase over the previous year, and the telephone penetration rate reached 12.28%. Of this, the number of fixed telephone subscribers was 49.45 million, and that of mobile phone subscribers were 84.88 million. In 2005, the growth rate of the fixed telephone market was 9.0%, whereas that of the mobile phone market achieved 58.1%.

Such development of the telecommunications market has been attained through a series of drastic promotions of policies which have been implemented since the late 1990s. In India, private carriers have been entering the market since the “National Telecom Policy” was announced in 1994. Whereas still more than 80% is dominated by two national carriers in the fixed telephone market, 13 carriers, including three major private carriers taking up more than a 60% share, are vigorously competing with each other in the mobile phone market. India’s government is currently enhancing political efforts, aiming to increase the number of telephone subscribers to 250 million by the end of 2007, and formally decided, in October 2005, to raise the upper limit of the foreign direct investment (FDI) ratio in the telecommunications field from 49% to 74%. Due to the decision, carriers worldwide, including Vodafone (the United Kingdom) and Maxis (Malaysia), started to enter into the mobile phone market in India.

Meanwhile, India which is nine times as large as Japan is facing a serious digital divide between cities and rural villages. Lack of infrastructures in rural areas is a major obstacle to deploy communications services.

Considering 70% of more than a billion people live in rural areas, it is essential to enhance more efforts to deploy communications services in those areas.

In 2006, 3G services are scheduled to start and further growth in the mobile phone market is expected. India’s government is also vigorously working on environmental improvements to expand broadband services, for example, establishing the next generation networks.