Power of Korea ICT, Leading international cooperation to prevent the spread of infectious diseases

SEOUL, South Korea, July 12, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- KT's international solution of preventing and blocking the world health crisis through telecommunication operator's Big Data has been successfully adopted to the G20 Joint Declaration.

KT's idea of using technology to contribute in raising South Korea's status through the G20 Joint Declaration process. The economic and social losses and human loss from infectious diseases are very high and is a significant problem in need of a resolution within the international community. Therefore, KT is working to secure international corporation to spread this idea to the world and to reduce this crisis.

In the Joint Declaration (page 8), 'Building Resilience' part, shows prevention and correspondence against the World Health Crisis. Especially, in the 'Safeguarding against Health Crises and Strengthening Health System', it highlights the importance of building a strong health system to prevent an international health crisis.

In the agreed documents, G20 Action Plan on the 2030 Agenda for sustainable development's 'global health' p18, it supports international efforts, including WHO Health Emergencies Program to manage health risks and crisis. Moreover, it highlights importance of early identification of disease outbreak to response effectively.

In 2016, KT with Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Ministry of Science, ICT, and Future Planning, constructed a 'smart quarantine system' that analyzes the roaming data of travelers visiting the infected area to follow quarantine procedures. Currently under the leadership of the CDC, it is being implemented with other telecommunication companies. 

KT CEO Chang gyu Hwang stated "as global cooperation enhancement is stipulated in G20 Summit Joint Statement, a stepping-stone is set for preventing global communicative diseases by utilizing big data. KT will continuously show its best endeavor to improve national status and pride while working closely with the ministries of Health and Welfare, Science, ICT, and Future Planning."

Furthermore, at the UN Global Compact (UNGC) conference in New York 2016, KT CEO Chang gyu Hwang proposed a project to prevent the global spread of infectious diseases by analyzing the roaming information of mobile phone users (about 7.3 billion people) for the first time in the world with 800 international telecommunication companies.