The government announced Thursday that it will build the country’s first meister high school specializing in software and create a software bank as part of its efforts to boost the nation’s competitiveness in the software industry.

In a meeting chaired by President Lee Myung-bak, the Ministry of Knowledge Economy unveiled its plan, divided into 11 policy tasks, to establish an ecosystem for the software industry.

The announcement takes place after global players like Apple and Google Inc. have been gaining ground in the fast-changing IT market with strength in hardware as well as software.

Korea also has competitive IT firms ― such as Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics ― but its lack of competency in software has been pointed out as a task that must be tackled.

The meister high school on software will be established to nurture technicians with software expertise at an early stage. The government will assist them in employment and entrepreneurship as part of its support package through holding further negotiations between the related state branches.

The software bank will secure a database related to software technology possessed by companies, governmental research centers and colleges and provide the information and technologies to firms that request it, said government officials. It will also provide customized consulting and technology development support.

The government will also revise a law on the development of the software industry and raise the lower limit for the system integration companies when participating in new public projects to restrict them from taking part in them. It will be increased from 4 billion won ($3.58 million) to 8 billion won for firms recording more than 800 billion won in sales and from 2 billion won to 4 billion won for those recording less than 800 billion won in sales.

The action comes as the government believes the SI firms have been offering new projects to their affiliates, dampening software competitiveness.

In a related effort, the government will inject the profit gained from radio frequency auction into the country’s software sector. About 1.06 trillion won is expected to roll in as profits as a result of the auction by 2022.

By Cho Ji-hyun (sharon@heraldcorp.com)