An effective electronic banking solution does not necessarily guarantee a successful e-banking rollout. For e-banking to be truly successful, there must be a reliable information infrastructure and a well-educated user base.

This, in a nutshell, is the secret behind the success of e-banking in Korea, disclosed Bob Chua, chief executive officer of the Korean IT Industry Promotion Agency (KIPA).

In an interview in the Philippines, Chua emphasized that while e-banking solutions play a crucial role, it is still the information infrastructure that can make or break any country?s e-banking initiatives.

?E-banking has two major components: the applications layer and the infrastructure layer,? he said. The infrastructure layer, he explained, covers not just Internet bandwidth, but redundant security and a well-educated user base as well.

Chua insisted that the infrastructure component should be addressed first ? before the applications are put in place. The KIPA chief likened this scenario to an expressway where the physical highway is built first before other structures such as tollgates, road signs, and traffic monitoring systems are installed.

?Deploying solutions and applications without a reliable infrastructure often results in a lot of frustration and bottlenecks,? he warned.

At the onset, e-banking does not immediately demand super high bandwidth, according to Chua. ?For the initial rollout, e-banking applications do not make use of a lot of animation or iconic displays, so an ultra high-speed Internet access is not really a prerequisite. What is essential is a highly reliable and secure Internet connection,? he pointed out.

However, as e-banking evolves and matures, it will eventually require higher bandwidth to accommodate newer, bandwidth-hungry features such as voice recognition, biometrics and others. So the main challenge for the government is to continuously improve bandwidth capacity to ensure it can adopt to newer trends in e-banking, the KIPA executive said.

Readiness

On a scale of 1 to 10, Chua rated the Philippines? e-banking readiness at somewhere between 5 and 6. In comparison, countries like Korea, Singapore, and Japan stand at between 8 and 9.

What the Philippines lacks, the KIPA chief noted is the availability of a reliable Internet infrastructure throughout the country, an Internet data center in the rural areas, and the readiness of the population.

?The education of the mass base is integral to the laying down of the information infrastructure and should be conducted in parallel with the laying down of (e-banking) applications,? he said.

In Korea?s case, Chua said the country was able to leapfrog into the e-banking age because it had these components, Also crucial to the country?s success in e-banking, he added is the aggressive support of the government.

?Any national ICT initiative should be pushed by the government, not the private sector,? Chua said. ?Still, the private sector should be enjoined to partner with the government, who can, in turn, provide them with a number of incentives.?

KIPA

Chua?s recent visit to the Philippines was in line with KIPA?s mandate to promote Korean-developed software and applications. ?Our aim is to increase the market?s awareness as to what Korea can offer as far as e-banking is concerned. We want to introduce to the Philippine market alternative e-banking solutions designed and developed by Korean firms,? he said. Unlike solutions produced by companies based in the US and Europe, Korea?s e-banking solutions, according to him, can be used on a variety of platforms

The Philippines was KIPA?s first stop in the Asia Pacific for its e-banking exhibit. Chua said the country presents tremendous opportunities and a higher growth potential for Korean firms compared to other countries in the region. Unlike Thailand and Malaysia, the Philippines is not so much ?entrenched? with e-banking solutions from the West, he noted.

Established only in 2002, KIPA?s efforts to promote Korean software products have already paid off and have resulted in more than $600 million in export sales. In the Asia Pacific alone, more than $120 million worth of Korean software has been exported in the last two years as a result of KIPA?s initiatives.