November 30, 2024

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AMCHAM Chairman & CEO James Kim speaks at the Digital Innovation Forum 2022 held in Seoul, Friday. (Lee Yoon-seo/The Korea Herald)

While touting South Korea’s unrivaled position as a digital hub in the Asia-Pacific region, foreign executives and experts called for a need to create sustainable regulatory environment to foster the country‘s digital prowess at a forum hosted by the American Chamber of Commerce on Friday.

“Korea is a optimal place for digital transformation, and will rise as a regional digital hub for Asia Pacific,“ said James Kim AMCHAM Chairman & CEO, at the Digital Innovation Forum 2022.

”In this context, it is critically important for Korea to create a sustainable regulatory environment where all digital service providers could thrive long term.“

The forum held under the tagline “Seizing Korea’s opportunities in the new age of digital transformation,” included Agne Makauskaite, head of regulated industry and public policy in Asia Pacific and Japan at Amazon Web Services, Harrison Kim, country director of Google Korea, Dr. Michael Mandel, vice president and chief economist at Progressive Policy Institute, and Cha Sung-ho, PS commercial manager of HP Korea as speakers.

Describing how Korea is home to contents with great potential, Kim of Google Korea said the US company has been supporting exports of K-content as a digital platform distributor.

“Google will support K-content’s expansion to the world with YouTube, marketing programs and cloud technologies. Kakao Entertainment, Naver Webtoon have a history of working with us, and our platform accelerated the content’s entrance to the global stage,” said Kim.

Cha of HP Korea said that the company is focusing on the MZ generation that has become a main workforce here and that there must be conversion of office spaces that utilizes digital technology.

Dr. Mandel, meanwhile, said the Korean economy could grow further if there’s less regulatory intervention in new technologies, citing the performance of the Korean app developers shown in quickly creating new apps to meet the needs of the pandemic.

By Lee Yoon-seo (yoonseo.3348@heraldcorp.com)