The Korean government has cancelled a large number of e-commerce development projects for 2006, while boosting the budget for emerging sectors such as e-learning and e-health. Especially hard hit is the budget for promoting IT infrastructure in small and medium sized enterprises, which will be cut back by 50%.

 

In 2006 the Korean government will spend 45.6 billion Won (US$45.3 million; US$1=1006 Won) on projects to develop e-commerce, a decrease of 30% in comparison with the 71.9 billion Won (US$71.6 million) it will spend in 2005.

Money for projects directed at small and medium sized enterprises is being dropped from 40 billion Won (US$39.7 million) in 2005 to 14 billion Won (US$13.9 million) in 2006.