Reasons for Proposal
Amid the acceleration of the 4th Industrial Revolution and the restructuring of global supply chains, an industrial digital transition is expanding around the world, which applies digital technologies such as artificial intelligence and big data across industries including manufacturing. In particular, the production and consumption processes are rapidly transitioning toward contactless processes due to COVID-19, which makes it important to use industrial data. Accordingly, major countries like the US and Japan are actively seeking policies for an industrial digital transition.
While individual data have been used mostly in the service sector including healthcare, financial, and telecommunications in Korea, it has been difficult to use industrial data across the industrial value chain due to companies’ tendency to overly protect trade secrets and various forms and an extensive range of such data. As digital technologies is evolving and competition between companies is becoming fiercer, a digital transition is becoming increasingly important, but Korean companies are not properly prepared to respond. In addition, implementation systems and support schemes for related policies have not been prepared systematically.
Taking this changing trend in conventional production and consumption practices as an opportunity, it is a critical issue of our time to promote a digital transition across industries by using Korea’s flagship industries and competitiveness in information and communications technology. It is urgently needed to prepare the legal basis under a new framework to fundamentally improve industrial competitiveness by innovating and adding value across the value chain with digital technologies and industrial data.
In this regard, this Act aims to set forth the principles of using and protecting industrial data, which is not defined in the Personal Information Protection Act and other applicable laws, remove uncertainty among companies, and promote the use of industrial data. In addition, this Act aims to define matters about the implementation system in the government to comprehensively establish and implement industrial digital transition policies, and specify provisions related to various support schemes which can strongly back up digital transition activities in the private sector.
Details
A. Aim to facilitate an industrial digital transition by promoting the use of industrial data and applying intelligent information technologies to industries, ensure industrial competitiveness, improve people’s quality of life, and contribute to national economic development (Article 1).
B. Define an industrial digital transition as a series of activities which make the industrial process efficient by using industrial data and applying intelligent information technologies to industries under Article 2 subparagraph 4 of the Framework Act on Intelligent Information and create new added value (Article 2).
C. Require the Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy to establish the Industrial Digital Transition Master Plan every 3 years and confirm the Plan through review by the Industrial Digital Transition Committee to efficiently and systematically achieve the objective of this Act (Article 5).
D. Establish the Industrial Digital Transition Committee under the Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy to review policies related to the industrial digital transition and check their implementation, and define the composition, operation, and review matters of the Committee (Articles 7 and 8).
E. Set forth the principles of using and protecting industrial data, which allow those who have newly created industrial data by investing human and physical resources and making a lot of efforts to have the right to use and profit from such data and ban anyone from infringing on the right to use and profit from industrial data in a method that runs against fair commercial practices or competition (Article 9).
F. Allow the Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy to ensure a smooth and safe industrial data use environment, including reasonable distribution and fair transactions for industrial data, and provide necessary support to promote their use by companies (Article 10).
G. Define obligations and support details for specialized companies supporting the use of industrial data, and allow the Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy to standardize industrial data to improve their interoperability and use effectiveness (Articles 11 and 12).
H. Allow the Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy to discover and select a leading project that has a huge ripple effect on the industrial digital transition through review by the Industrial Digital Transition Committee with collaboration recommendations for companies, provide administrative, technical, and financial support for the leading project, and request relevant administrative agencies to improve statues and regulations as filed by companies (Articles 13 through 16).
I. Allow the Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy to implement support projects to promote underlying technologies and equipment related to the industrial digital transition and the development of products and services based on industrial data (Article 17).
J. Allow the Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy to prepare measures required to train and employee professionals for the industrial digital transition (Article 18).
K. Allow the central and local governments to provide financial and tax benefits and other administrative support required to promote the industrial digital transition (Article 19).
L. Require the government to make efforts to promote international cooperation to promote the industrial digital transition, ensure that Korean people’s industrial data are properly protected in other countries, and take necessary action against individuals in a country which restricts the overseas transfer of industrial data (Article 20).
