Proficiency in English key to economy: Roh

SEOUL - PRESIDENT Roh Moo Hyun said yesterday that proficiency in English is crucial to South Korea's economic survival and vowed to build a nationwide infrastructure to teach the language.

'English is a must in order to catch up with the globalisation stream. The biggest competitive edge of Finland and other rapidly growing advanced countries is English-speaking people,' Mr Roh said.

'Korean students spend over 10 trillion won (S$16 billion) annually on private English study lectures and programmes, but they are still considered weak in English,' Mr Roh said at the launch of an all-day English education television channel by state-funded EBS-TV (Education Broadcasting System).

'The government will gradually expand investments in social infrastructure for English education,' he added.

By 2009, English experience centres would be set up at some 1,300 elementary schools nationwide at a cost of 240 billion won, Yonhap news agency quoted Mr Roh as saying.

In addition, all local middle schools will have at least one native English-speaking teacher by 2010, he said.

An English education town on the southern island of Jeju, with a capacity to take about 9,000 students, would be set up in the first half of the year.

'The construction of the Jeju English town will largely substitute for overseas English study trips by Korean students,' Mr Roh said.

South Korean footballer Park Ji Sung of Manchester United would become a public relations ambassador for EBS English, according to the Education Ministry.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE