Reaching for the Stars With Digital Convergence ... - Korea IT Times

2006-03-12006.3.410:47AM페이지20001채널맥(3443-0701)
New Growth Engine / Design Powerhouse
Korea: Emerging Design Powerhouse?
KIDP aims to make Korea the world’s 7th design powerhouse by 2008
The Korea Institute of Design
Promotion (KIDP) will strive
to achieve its ambitious target
of making Korea the world’s 7th
design powerhouse by 2008, Kim
Chul-ho, president and CEO of the
KIDP, said recently.
Noting that the nation’s design
ability reaches about 80% of such
design advanced countries as the
United States and Britain and
outstrips the level of Taiwan and
China slightly, he said that KIDP
will go all-out for the development
of the nation’s design industry.
In an interview with the Korea IT
Times, Kim said, “Despite the
importance of the design industry
and a high ratio of results to
investment now standing at 19 times,
support for the design sector is still
insufficient.”
Regional design reform projects
Accordingly, KIDP plans to
newly establish and operate regional
design reform projects in order to set up a regional integrationtype
design reform system.
“Through activation of regional culture projects, including
design exhibitions and design contests, we also project to
expand regional ability in the design field,” said the top manager
of the KIDP.
“First of all, we will push for the national environment
design improvement project to spread the design conception to
all environmental and public facilities, including residential and
office spaces and roads. We will improve the national image
strategically,” Kim said.
Along with this, KIDP will make best efforts to enhance
global competitiveness of the design industry. It will also push
for bolstering the design competitiveness through reform of a
professional company-centered system by actively fostering
competitive core and sound design enterprises and strengthening
report conditions by design professional companies.
At the same time, it will offer differentiated supporting
measures to design enterprises according to the maturity stage,
Despite the importance of the design industry, support for
the design sector is still insufficient.
said the president.
Spreading global design culture
Besides, KIDP plans to support
the spot-oriented manpower training
in order to effectively cope with
industrial demands and bolster its
design ability through international
cooperation.
It will also seek expansion of the
design industry’s base through
spread of design culture and mull
over ways of creating a designbased
industry carrying high value
added, Kim said.
Asked about the KIDP’s
programs for international
cooperation for 2006, Kim said that
it will hold the Alvar Aalto
Exhibition featuring Finland’s toplevel
design and construction culture
in March in Seoul.
In June, it will also hold the 41st
Korea Industrial Design Exhibition,
which is widely called as the
gateway to success in the nation’s
design industry, in June.
The 13th Korea Youth Design Exhibition, which provides
young design hopefuls with hope and the future vision, will be
held in August.
Also, KIDP plans to hold the 2006 Design College
Exhibition, which links college graduates to employment
through their works, at COEX, southern Seoul in November.
In particular, KIDP projects to organize the “Design Korea
2006 - Shanghai” event in China in November this year to help
Korean enterprises and design-specialized companies lay
cornerstone for advancement into the Chinese market, the
biggest in the world.
“We plan to introduce superiority of Korean design by
heralding the nation’s excellent design products and enterprises
to Chinese enterprises. It is the second event KIDP held in
China, following the ‘Design Korea 2004 - Beijing.’ We
finished the Beijing event successfully by attracting more than
50,000 visitors a day and receiving requests from the Chinese
side to extend the exhibition period,” Kim said.
The following are excerpts from the interview with CEO
Kim Chul-ho of the KIDP.
Q: Would you comment the importance of design,
which is widely regarded as the next-generation
growth engine?
A: Design has been recently emerged as a powerful
mean to achieve “reform,” now being strongly pushed by
private enterprises and the government.
In case that design is used as not a simple styling but a
process of solving problem, design can
suggest useful solutions to many problems
spreading in the overall society.
In particular, design can be an effective
strategy for enterprises to create openminded
corporate culture, explore new
markets and manage total brands. If we
define that design is a process of
commercializing technology and idea,
design will decide the method of meeting
commodity and service with customer.
A report announced by the economic
research institute of a company defined
that a good design refers to a design
offering good experience to customers
until they buy, use and abolish a product.
Accordingly, we can say that the role
of design is to reflect consumers’
conscious and unconscious expectations and desire to
product through study on users.
Q: Would you introduce design-related success stories
of global enterprises?
A: Viewing such global enterprises as Philips, Apple,
British Airways, IBM and Nike, we can know that they
achieved success by using design as a core managerial
strategy.
Apple CEO Steve Jobs who succeeded in coming back
with such reformative design products as iMac and iPod,
said, “Design is the soul in the center of manmade
creations.” He has a firm design mind and has pushed ahead
with design management.
Under the recognition that design is the last place to
contend for victory, Lee Kun-hee, chairman of Samsung
Group, has emphasized securing design competitiveness for
production of world premium products.
According to a research report announced by Design
Council of Britain, the stock value of design-centered
enterprises in the British FTSE 100 index (stock index of
top 100 enterprises jointly operated by London Stock
Exchange and Financial Times) soared as much as 200%
Kim Chul-ho,
president and CEO of the KIDP
that of other companies during the 10-year period from
1994 to 2004.
In this way, design is in the limelight of growth engine
for the future, generating great effects on enterprises,
government and living of individuals.
Because of the influencing power and importance of
design, major advanced counties establish design policies
from the national viewpoint and exert best efforts for
securing the global leadership in the design field.
Q: KIDP has been implementing a variety of projects
for small and medium-sized enterprises.
Would you introduce some projects?
A: KIDP has been spending some 12
billion won ($12.3 million based on 2005) a
year for a variety of projects supporting
small and medium-sized enterprises.
First of all, KIDP has been carrying out
the design reform technology development
project, which helps small and mediumsized
enterprises suffering from shortage of
design development ability or designers
develop new designs of products, packages,
characters and brands by linking them with
design-specialized companies or
universities,
It also extends loans up to 1 billion won
($1.02 million) to smaller companies at
favorable terms and conditions for development of design
reform technology.
After selecting success design products among goods
produced by enterprises that participated in the design
reform technology development project, KIDP supports
them for PR and sales promotion activities.
Since 2004, KIDP has been focusing its supports on
smaller companies producing the world’s top-class products
or next-generation growth-oriented goods.
It is also actively supporting companies exclusively
engaging in development, survey, analysis, and consultation
businesses of industrial design.
Q: Do you have any comments on the design industry?
A: Now design has become the last place for enterprises
to contend for victory. The design sector is an advanced
industry carrying high value added and a core engine power
to narrow the nation’s gap with advanced countries.
Accordingly, concern and investment in the design
industry will be a short cut to make Korea an advanced
country with per capita national income of over $20,000.
2 0 _ March 2006 KOREA IT TIMES
KOREA IT TIMES March 2006 _ 2 1