Korea will spend 189.3 trillion won ($151.5 billion) over the next five years to strengthen its competitiveness in the information technology (IT) sector, said the government. The Presidential Council for Future and Vision said funds will be injected into five core areas, covering IT conversion, software, leading IT industries, broadcasting and communication, and internet infrastructure, reports Yonhap News. Of the total, to be spent by 2013, 14.1 trillion won will come from government coffers with the remaining 175.2 trillion won to be invested by the private sector, the council said in a meeting chaired by President Lee Myung-bak. State funds are to be spent to help small- and medium-size enterprises conduct research and development, with 109.7 trillion won worth of private investments to be allocated for production and industrial infrastructure. The five-year strategy calls for the creation of nationwide, super-high speed internet infrastructure able to transmit data at 1 gigabit per second – 10 times the speed of current broadband lines. It also seeks to introduce a fully digital television broadcast system by 2012, aiming to foster the widespread use of wireless broadband (WiBro), IPTV and three-dimensional TVs.