America's Strategy Towards a Knowledge Economy

means of economic development. It is possible to see an evolution in Singapore's approach to the concept of knowledge economy. The strategies before 1998, although mentioning the goal of developing a knowledge economy, still focused mainly on the development of information technology. Through the general goals and action directions of the strategy issued by the Singapore Competition Commission in late 1998, it can be seen that Singapore has considered the knowledge economy as a new socio-political economic model, in which knowledge is understood as the ability to learn and innovate, not simply science and technology.

2.2.3. South Korea's strategy

Within three decades, South Korea has transformed from a developing country to a developed industrialized country, ranking 12th in the OECD with a per capita income that has increased more than 100 times. However, the crisis of the late 1990s revealed serious problems in the economy following the traditional growth model. In an effort to reform and restore the economy, the President of South Korea commissioned the Ministry of Finance and Economy (MOEF) and 13 major research organizations to prepare a series of background documents and a report outlining the transformation of South Korea into a knowledge-based economy. In April 2000, the National Economic Advisory Council (NEAC) publicly announced its long-term vision and master plan for developing South Korea into a KBE. These documents affirmed the determination to build a knowledge-based economy as a medium- and long-term strategy for the development of the Korean economy and society. Below is a summary of the Background Report and the Grand Plan to Transform Korea into a Knowledge-Based Economy:

Maybe you are interested!

Background Report: “The Comprehensive Plan for Transforming Korea into a KBE” conceives that transforming into a knowledge-based economy means making the entire society more suited to the production, dissemination, and exploitation of knowledge. The five specific strategic goals for Korea in the Master Plan for Developing a Knowledge-Based Economy are:

- Make South Korea one of the top 10 information and knowledge superpowers.

- Develop the next generation of the Internet and the information superhighway by 2005.

- Encourage students, teachers and the military to use computers, carry out profound educational reforms to equip the country with the ability to transform itself into a knowledge-based economy.

- Creatively apply the new advances of an Internet society in a democracy based on human rights.

- Eliminate the development gap through productivity prosperity and balanced regional development.

To achieve that goal, the policy orientation and implementation direction are as follows:

- Developing human resources: (i) Building a competitive education system, expanding the participation of self-governing private schools, paying salaries based on teaching performance, hiring contract teaching staff, and orienting education towards customers (students) in universities; (ii) Building a lifelong learning system that is accessible anywhere and anytime; (iii) Vocational training and human resource development system;

(iv) Reform the vocational training system, privatize public vocational training institutions after converting them to self-supporting accounting systems; (v)

(vi) Vocational training systems must be individualized, taking into account the abilities and personalities of each learner.

- Improve the efficiency of government R&D investments: (i) Strengthen the coordination function of the National Science and Technology Council for research of various ministries and agencies; (ii) Build a fair and objective R&D management and evaluation system, transforming Korea from “imitation-oriented R&D to innovative R&D”.

- Building information infrastructure: (i) Becoming a world leader in Internet usage; (ii) Reorganizing the laws related to the accumulation of basic information resources at an early stage.

- Encourage the development of the software industry: (i) Encourage the expansion of software demand; (ii) Develop high-quality human resources in the information technology industry; (iii) Enhance the competitiveness of the software industry.

- Decentralization of knowledge management: (i) Companies must have clear business strategies and implement knowledge management to support these business strategies; (ii) Leaders need to have a broad vision of knowledge and knowledge dissemination; (iii) Companies must play a key role in implementing knowledge management. The government has a role to support and create an environment conducive to companies' knowledge management. The government's role can be summarized as reforming relevant laws and regulations and building an infrastructure for knowledge management.

- Developing the market for basic and advanced knowledge. (i) The Government must have an innovative spirit and ability; (ii) The Government must avoid playing the role of a supervisor of the economic activities of the private sector and of a provider of public goods. Instead, the Government

The government must play a role in creating an environment and incentive system that will create an institutional framework that encourages knowledge creation and diffusion; (iii) In fiscal expenditure, the government must focus its expenditure on building knowledge capital, instead of building all social capital; (iv) Improve the tax system in line with the new knowledge-based economic framework; (v) Strengthen intellectual property protection; (vi) Standardize in line with international practices; (vii) Upgrade the government system to build a knowledge capital assessment system. It is necessary to adopt a technology assessment system and develop experts in assessing different technologies to encourage the private sector to invest in technologies, in other words, knowledge capital.

Comment

Korea’s strategy towards a knowledge-based economy is a “top-down” strategy with a high degree of centralization. This strategic planning mainly reflects the will and determination of the government, lacking the participation of the people and businesses and is just a collection of separate policies and programs but having a common relationship to the development of science and technology, especially information technology. Through the strategic goals, it can be seen that Korea’s understanding of the knowledge-based economy is a new economic-cultural-social environment with suitable characteristics and creating the most favorable conditions for learning, innovation and creativity. In that environment, knowledge will inevitably become the most important production factor contributing to economic development. However, the specific implementation measures of the strategy follow a narrow approach to knowledge, focusing on the development of science and technology, not paying enough attention to building a learning society, enhancing entrepreneurship, and especially not mentioning much about developing a competitive and internationally open market.

2.2.4. America's strategy towards knowledge economy

The knowledge economy strategy in the United States is often presented as a set of policy frameworks developed collaboratively by individuals, organizations, and think tanks. However, examining these strategies provides a wealth of useful information for understanding the economy.

The Progressive Policy Institute (PPI) offers ten Rules of the Road: Governing Principles for the New Economy as signposts to guide local, state, and federal policymakers as they structure policy for the new economy. These principles are:

Principle 1: Governments must promote innovation to raise living standards.

Research shows that innovation plays a central role in increasing productivity in the new economy, which is the basis for improving the quality of life. Therefore, the Government must support policies that promote innovation and increase productivity, creating conditions for the process of change and modernization of the economy because these changes create job opportunities and increase income for the American people. At the same time, the Government also plays a key role in providing the enforcement force and organizations with the capacity to lead the economy through difficulties to bring prosperity.

Principle 2: Expand the Winners' circle.

This means the government must ensure that all Americans, including those who have not yet participated in or benefited from the new economy, have access to

the tools and resources they need to get ahead and stay there.

The new economy is knowledge-based and rapidly changing, so the success of people, organizations and communities depends on their ability to learn and adapt. Therefore, the Government needs to orient society towards improving skills and training while providing a long-term education system.

As ICT becomes increasingly a driving force in the economy and an essential tool for accessing information and participating in urban life, the Government needs to make access to technology widespread and easy by ensuring that public libraries, schools, job centres and all parts of the country are connected.

Principle 3: Invest in knowledge and training in knowledge use skills

To foster innovation and ensure that people reap the benefits of the new economy, governments should invest heavily in 21st-century knowledge infrastructures such as international education, training and lifelong learning, science, technology, technical standards, and tangible public goods. These can be seen as essential drivers of economic progress.

At the same time, the government should encourage research in the private sector through credit support and multi-stakeholder cooperation. In addition, in an economy where competitive success depends on industrial standards, the government should support the setting of standards.

Governments need to invest in education and training, including science and technology, to ensure skilled workers are available to companies and to equip them to succeed in the new economy.

Principle 4: Grow the net

The government must avoid policies and regulations that impede the growth of the Internet or that slow it down by protecting business interests threatened by the digitalization of the economy. Policymakers should provide a framework and principles that support the widespread deployment of high-speed, broadband information networks in a wide range of areas, including taxation, encryption, the private sector, digital signatures, and more. However, the government must be careful to do so on a fair and equitable basis. The government can help expand the network by investing in information infrastructure, including the Next Generation Internet (NGI), which connects more than 100 U.S. universities to help develop networking and advanced applications for research and learning. The Internet is especially important in that it must be made available to all Americans.

Principle 5: Let the market set the price

In the old economy, when national markets were dominated by monopolies, governments often set prices. In such cases, the costs of government intervention were borne out. But in the new economy, a more competitive global economy, unstable prices lead to inefficient decisions by consumers and producers about resource allocation. Therefore, from a market failure perspective, markets, not governments, should set the prices of goods and services. It is the government’s responsibility to address the problems caused by market failures and ensure fair and democratic opportunity. Along with setting regulations to ensure fair competition, governments need to support policies that give people access to the information they need to make good decisions.

Principle 6: Open regulated markets to competition

The new economy creates conditions for competition that lead to innovation and increased benefits for consumers. Governments should continue to provide public health, safety, and environmental regulation. However, regulations on competition between firms should be deregulated and replaced with incentives to achieve public benefit goals such as low costs, new products, and consumer choice. Public policies should ensure that consumers have access to the information they need to make informed decisions, and that consumers are not misled in the marketplace.

Principle 7: Encourage technological innovation competition

In the new economy, technology is not only playing the role of “Silicon Valley” but it is also a catalyst with great influence on socio-economic change. Technological innovation is being directed towards social policy goals, including improving public health care, protecting the environment, renewing the national security system, improving education and training, and changing government organizations. To solve social problems, solutions should be sought through (licensing) technology. But there is a problem that those who are successful today do not spend money on innovation in the future. For example, in 1980, the French government decided to provide free Minitel computers to households. However, because these Minitel computers were not installed with modern network technology, the French did not use the network and France fell behind in this issue.

Principle 8: Help people access information

In the old economy, access to information was difficult. In the new economy, thanks to continuous innovation in information technology at low cost, access to information has become easy and widespread, helping individuals to have