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S. Korea unveils big data center to help industry catch up

Center will enable businesses and researchers to refine and analyze big data for their projects, and aims to bring the industry's level to that of global technology firms which it says is 2 to 5 years behind.
Written by Ellyne Phneah, Contributor
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The center is expected to become a 'test bed' for big data-related businesses and to foster researchers at universities

South Korea will set up a new big data center to help its industry catch up with global technology giants. This will be the country's first center which allows anyone to refine and analyze big data. 
South Korea's ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning said it will work with the National Information Society Agency (NIA) to build it, Yonhap News reported on Friday.

The science ministry said South Korea's big data technology may be two to five years behind that of global technology companies such as Google and Amazon, lacking the proper infrastructure and experience to thrive in the relatively new but promising field.

"We expect our new center to become a 'test bed' for big data-related businesses and a means to foster researchers at universities," a ministry official said. "We're planning to create a basic solution so that anyone can use our service to analyze big data."

The center is catered for small and midsized enterprises, venture businesses, universities and citizens that wish to try their hands on this new technology phenomenon to answer their business or research issues.

The developer of the center's hardware and software will be chosen through a competitive selection process by next month, while the center's basic Web platform will be completed by August 2013 for a test run in September, it added.

Set to located in the NIA building, the center will connect its online platform with the government's data portal service, which stores national statistics and other public information.

The new center is in line with South Korean president Park Geun-hye's "creative economy" vision outlined in February this year, which called for using information technology as a main tool for economic growth.

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