By Kim Minji

President Moon Jae-in on April 8 hailed Korea for becoming the world's first country to start 5G commercial service, saying, "The Korean government will push ahead with a national 5G strategy to create the world's best 5G ecosystem."

In a ceremony at Seoul's Olympic Park, he said the nation must take on the challenge of becoming the world's best and urged innovative growth based on 5G infrastructure, adding, "The new 5G-based industrial ecosystem will provide opportunities for our youths to take on new challenges and for the nation to see a second venture boom."

The president also announced the goals of capturing 15 percent of the global 5G market, generating 600,000 quality jobs and achieving USD 73 billion in exports by 2026.

After the president's speech, the Ministry of Science and ICT said that with Korea topping the global 5G market, the ministry will make changes that the people can feel and utilize a "5G+ strategy" to create services and industries using 5G infrastructure. 

On April 3, Korea became the first country to start commercial 5G service amid a fierce competition among major economies to gain an advantage in the technology. Compared to 4G, 5G is 20 times faster in data speed, allows 10 times more devices to connect and has just 10 percent of 4G's latency rate. 

A core component of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, 5G is considered the driving force for innovation in fields such as medicine and academia. 

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