According to the ministry's vision, by 2006 over 90 percent of Koreans will be familiar with the Internet, there will be one school computer for every five students and all the major local corporations will be connected online.

Furthermore, total production in the information technology (IT) industry will soar from 150 trillion won recorded last year to 276 trillion won in 2006, raising the sector's share in national production from the current 12.9 percent to 17 percent, it said.

Export volume in the sector is also forecast to jump from $38.4 billion today to $89.5 billion.

With such growth, employment in the sector is seen to increase from 1.16 million last year to 1.44 million in 2006 while users of electronic document services will expand from 1.92 million to 25 million.

Telephone registrations will grow from 27.73 million last year to 24.48 million in 2007, and mobile phone users from 29.05 million to 39.16 million.

The number of residential homes with high-speed Internet connections is also estimated to balloon from 7.91 million homes to 15 million homes in 2007, while those owning digital television sets will make up 50 percent of total.

"If our carefully-calculated predictions come true, we will certainly rise as the 10th most advanced nation in information capacity," the ministry said.