South Korea’s ICT minister said Wednesday the most important factor for emerging countries to build ICT infrastructure that touts sustainable development is corporate investment, adding that there are limits in continuing growth via aid.

“South Korea held talks with delegates from many countries, with most of them lacking high-tech infrastructure at home,” ICT Minister Choi Yang-hee told reporters. “They are mostly interested in how Seoul posted rapid growth in the 1970s and ’80s.”

“Rather than short-term aid, we are planning to set up a comprehensive support plan that can allow countries to experience rapid economic and social growth based on IT,” he added, putting more emphasis on corporate investment for sustainability.

South Korea is scheduled to hold minister-level bilateral ICT talks with 17 countries during the three-week International Telecommunications Union gathering being held in Busan.

The ministry also said that local IT firms have successfully won some $300 million in export deals at the World IT Show held on the sidelines of the meeting.

Some 120 companies including SK Telecom, KT Corp. and LG Uplus, held talks with around 50 foreign companies including China Unicom and Orange Polska from 17 countries before singing the deals, the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning said.

“The export deals are set to act as ‘turning points’ for local ICT firms, which seek to tap into emerging markets through ICT platforms and service packages,” the ministry said.

The WIS is South Korea’s largest ICT-related exhibit, participated in by more than 420 companies from home and abroad, including Samsung Electronics Co. and LG Electronics Inc.

The ITU is an information and communications arm of the U.N. that sets technological standards, allocates radio frequencies and satellite orbits, and works to improve the quality of communication services.

(From news reports)