Corruption and business ethics in Korea

First published in The Korea Herald.

On most occasions, the Korean government latches on to any new international report or study that commends the country, be it on competitiveness, ease of doing business, regulatory reforms or education. However, there has been remarkable silence from bureaucrats and government officials regarding the latest Corruption Perceptions Index recently released by Transparency International.

In its much-awaited yearly report, the nongovernment organization ― calling itself the “global coalition against corruption,” with 100 national chapters and an international secretariat in Berlin ― gives a comparative list of corruption worldwide. The organization is widely recognized as a corruption crusader and has built up a solid reputation since it was established in 1993.

The cornerstone of its work is the annual Corruption Perceptions Index. It also publishes the Global Corruption Barometer, Bribe Payers Index and Government Defense Anti-Corruption Index.

The CPI quantifies the perceived levels of public sector corruption around the globe, and over the past two decades has become one of the key corruption indices worldwide.

It focuses on corruption that involves public officials, civil servants or politicians. The data sources used to compile the index include questions relating to the abuse of public power and focus on bribery of public officials, kickbacks in public procurement, embezzlement of public funds, and the strength and effectiveness of public sector anticorruption efforts. The scores, therefore, provide a reflection of the amount of corruption faced by ordinary people and businesses in a country.

In the 2014 CPI, Korea ranked 43rd among the 175 countries surveyed. The Asian countries and territories ranked above Korea include Singapore (7), Japan (15), Hong Kong (17), UAE (25), Qatar (26), Bhutan (30), Taiwan (35) and Israel (37). Interestingly, Korea was ranked No. 39 in 2010 and No. 40 in 2005.

What does this tell us?

Clearly, Korea has a long way to go when it comes to tackling corruption. As long as its government and politicians are perceived to be corrupt, this will hamper investment and affect growth. With other territories in the vicinity being perceived as less corrupt, it is natural for investors to eye them first.

It is true that over the years the country has made many efforts to tackle corruption and has tweaked a lot of regulations to ensure transparency. Anticorruption acts have also been enacted. But it clearly is not enough.

Excessive bureaucracy, weaknesses in corporate governance, inconsistent application of laws and regulations, and nontransparent regulatory processes are among the challenges that have been cited by many foreign companies in Korea.

Moreover, the corruption watchdog Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission has been criticized for its poor ability to focus on corruption issues as it lacks independence and efficiency. It does not have a mandate to independently initiate investigations, but it can request cooperation from the relevant agencies, such as public prosecutors.

In the 2013 Global Corruption Barometer, the current government’s anticorruption efforts were found to be “ineffective,” with 39 percent of those surveyed perceiving that the level of corruption had increased in the previous two years. Moreover, 70 percent of households evaluated Korean political parties as being “corrupt” or “extremely corrupt.”

In last year’s World Competitiveness Report issued by the World Economic Forum, Korea ranked 26th out of 144 countries, its lowest position in 10 years. It also ranked 33rd in terms of transparency of government policymaking, and 97th in terms of public trust.

For that matter, for many years now the foreign media has constantly reported that the chaebol in Korea are so powerful that the ACCRC has no jurisdiction over them, even when they are involved in tax evasion, bribery and price-fixing. Except for a few outlets, the local media has been largely silent on the close nexus between politicians and the large business houses. It is evident that despite the protests by civil society, they are only getting stronger.

Each time a big-shot chaebol head is snagged by the prosecution and convicted by the courts, our politicians step in to bail them out of their misery. The constant refrain one hears from them is their “importance to the national economy.” Earlier the courts too used the same logic to give suspended sentences and a rap on the knuckles to “powerful” white-collar criminals, but thankfully now such judgments are rare.

In fact, it has become a global joke, and Korea has become a laughing stock for continuing with the policy of frequently granting special presidential pardons to businessmen, but the thick-skinned politicians have blinders and shamelessly continue their routine.

In the latest instance, ruling party politicians started howling for presidential pardons for some prominent chabeol owners in end-December. Finance Minister Choi Kyung-hwan too is reported to have recommended for the presidential office to release top chaebol owners.

By their logic, if you are rich and powerful with a huge business empire, you can freely break the law, because putting you behind bars will hamper your company, and since your company is so important for Korea, it will hamper economic growth and push Korea down from its advanced country status. What they do not realize is that if businessmen are given a free hand to evade taxes, set up slush funds and cheat investors, the country will automatically fall in the eyes of the world. Overseas investors will be put off, which will only stall economic growth ― much more so than if the businessmen are behind bars.

President Park Geun-hye has vowed to administer the law strictly and treat all criminal offenders equally. To that end, she has not granted special pardons to any politicians or businessmen in prison since taking office in early 2013. It remains to be seen whether she will succumb to pressure this time around. If she does, then many of the businessmen will continue to have scant regard for the law and Korea’s corruption ranking will continue to slip. If she does not, then it will be a strong signal that the law is equal for everyone.

As it is, Korea is perceived to have a pervasive system for conveying favors in return for monetary consideration, along with lax enforcement of existing anticorruption laws.

President Park should walk the talk and make abolishing corruption a top priority by overhauling the anticorruption systems. She should go beyond the Kim Young-ran law ― a comprehensive anticorruption bill aimed at public officials, likely to be enacted by January 2016 ― and end the practice of dealing out pardons to convicted chaebol chieftains.

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Regional agreements gaining steam

First published in The Korea Herald.

While bilateral free trade agreements, as a means to further the market-opening and rule-making agenda, have been globally picking up steam, there have also been parallel efforts to usher in a plethora of regional trade agreements and economic unions.

Given the uncertainty of the multilateral agreement under the ambit of the World Trade Organization, which has been dragging on for years, efforts to form regional agreements are picking up. Although many of them are overlapping, 2015 could see some progress being made on at least some of the deals.

They will have a significant impact on global trade. It is an opportunity for countries that seek to diversify their trade partners to closely follow the deals that are being put in place, to get first-mover advantage.

Eurasian Economic Union

First off the block is the Eurasian Economic Union that is still “warm from the oven.” The Commonwealth of Independent States established an economic community in 2001 with the aim of creating a fully fledged common market. However, as it was not making much headway, the leaders of the CIS gathered in Minsk in October 2014 to formally cancel the 14-year-old setup to pave the way for the EEU to be the largest common market in the ex-Soviet Union region.

The treaty on the establishment of the EEU, which just launched on Jan. 1, is the basic document defining the accords between Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan for the free movement of goods, services, capital and labor and conducting coordinated, agreed or common policies in key economic sectors such as energy, industry, agriculture and transport.

It is sought to rival the European Union and seeks to be the most advanced organization for regional cooperation the former Soviet bloc has seen. Armenia recently joined the union and Kyrgyzstan is expected to join on May 1, with more countries likely to follow.

Although many Western countries are concerned that it is simply a resurrected version of the Soviet Union, the EEU is a powerful economic bloc that accounts for one-fifth of the world’s gas reserves and around 15 percent of its oil. With the start of a new year, a new and serious geopolitical player is indeed emerging, and other emerging markets had better start paying close attention.

Trans-Pacific Partnership

The most talked-about deal in 2014, the Trans-Pacific Partnership, is a proposed regional regulatory and investment treaty that has gained traction recently, but seems to be stuck in a limbo. As of now, 12 countries throughout the Asia-Pacific region have participated in negotiations on the TPP: Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the United States and Vietnam. South Korea has expressed interest in joining but has not taken a step forward.

The agreement intends to “enhance trade and investment among the TPP partner countries, to promote innovation, economic growth and development, and to support the creation and retention of jobs.”

If concluded as envisioned, the TPP potentially could eliminate tariff and nontariff barriers to trade and investment among the parties and could serve as a template for a future trade pact among APEC members and potentially other countries.

Over 20 chapters are under discussion in the negotiations. In many cases, the rules being negotiated are intended to be more rigorous than comparable rules found in the WTO.

As the countries that make up the TPP negotiating partners include advanced industrialized, middle income, and developing economies, the TPP, if implemented, may involve restructuring and reform of some participants’ economies. It also has the potential to spur economic growth in the region.

So far 20 formal rounds of TPP negotiations have been held, but the members have not reached a consensus on a number of contentious issues like intellectual property and liberalization of agricultural markets. Another problem has been that, the U.S. could not proceed because of political difficulties at home regarding the passage of a Trade Promotion Authority by Congress.

Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership

The so-called “mega deal,” the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership is a trade agreement that is presently being negotiated between the European Union and the United States. Talks started in July 2013, but have faced a lot of opposition from civil society and trade unions in Europe.

The aim is to increase trade and investment between the EU and the U.S. by unleashing the untapped potential of a truly transatlantic marketplace. The agreement is expected to create jobs and growth by delivering better access to the U.S. market, achieving greater regulatory compatibility between the EU and the U.S., and paving the way for setting global standards.

In more concrete terms, the goal will be to eliminate duties and other restrictions for trade in goods. Freeing up commercial services, providing the highest possible protection, certainty and level playing field for European investors in the U.S., and increasing access to U.S. public procurement markets are also objectives.

The T-TIP negotiations will also look at opening both markets for services, investment, and public procurement. They could also shape global rules on trade. The seventh round of negotiations on the agreement concluded on Oct. 3, 2014.

Together, the European Union and the United States account for about half of world GDP and one-third of global trade flows. Latest estimates show that a comprehensive and ambitious agreement between the EU and the U.S. could bring overall annual gains of 0.5 percent increase in GDP for the EU and a 0.4 percent increase in GDP for the U.S. by 2027. While the road is quite long, all eyes are on this deal and some progress may be made in 2015.

Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific

A road map for the Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific was sketched out at the recent Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit in Beijing.

Ministers of the 21 APEC member nations agreed to “launch and comprehensively and systemically push forward the FTAAP process.”

In the summit declaration, it was stated that the rules-based multilateral trading system would remain a key tenet of APEC. The FTAAP should be pursued on the basis of supporting and complementing the multilateral trading system.

“The FTAAP should do more than achieve liberalization in its narrow sense; it should be comprehensive, high quality and incorporate and address ‘next generation’ trade and investment issues.”

A collective strategic study on issues related to the realization of the FTAAP by building on and updating existing studies and past work, providing an analysis of potential economic and social benefits and costs, performing a stock take of FTAs in force in the region, has been announced and will be submitted by the end of 2016.

The member countries account for 40 percent of the world’s population, 54 percent of its economic output and 44 percent of trade, making it a very powerful entity and clearly a deal to watch out for.

It will take a while, but given the interest shown by China, it may proceed faster than the TPP.


Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership

In what could be a game-changer, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership is a 16-party FTA launched by the leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations ― Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam ― and six of its FTA partners: Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand and South Korea.

The negotiations for the agreement started in 2013 and are expected to be concluded by year’s end.

The RCEP would lead to greater economic integration, support equitable economic development and strengthen economic cooperation among the countries involved.

The agreement will cover trade in goods, trade in services, investment, economic and technical cooperation, intellectual property, competition, dispute settlement and other issues.

The sixth round of negotiations took place in New Delhi in the first week of December. However, members were unable to agree on a template for negotiations.

The grouping envisages regional economic integration, leading to the creation of the largest regional trading bloc in the world, accounting for nearly 45 percent of the world’s population with a combined gross domestic product of $21.3 trillion. The regional economic pact aims to cover trade in goods and services, investment, economic and technical cooperation, competition and intellectual property.

As of now, it is unlikely that the 2015 deadline will be met, but one can always be ready for surprises.

ASEAN Economic Community

The ASEAN Economic Community seeks to establish ASEAN as a single market and production base, making ASEAN more dynamic and competitive with new mechanisms and measures to strengthen the implementation of its existing economic initiatives; accelerating regional integration in the priority sectors; facilitating movement of businesspersons, skilled labor and talents; and strengthening the institutional mechanisms.

Other areas of cooperation are to be incorporated later. The AEC envisages key characteristics: a single market and production base; a highly competitive economic region; a region of equitable economic development; and a region fully integrated into the global economy.

Although ASEAN has come a long way toward realizing its goal, the challenges that remain suggest that it may miss its end-2015 deadline.

Union of South American Nations

One dark horse is the Union of South American Nations, which is going to be a regional organization integrating two existing customs unions: Mercosur and the Andean Community of Nations, as part of a continuing process of South American integration. It is also modeled on the European Union and was established in Brasilia, on May 23, 2008, and entered into force on March 11, 2011, but full integration is yet to take place.

On Dec. 5, 2014, the 12 members ― Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, Venezuela, Chile, Guyana and Suriname ― announced new proposals at a summit meeting in Ecuador.

They have taken steps to create South American citizenship and freedom of movement and also opened the organization’s new permanent headquarters in the Ecuadorian capital of Quito.

Part of this proposal is to create a “single passport” and homologate university degrees in order to give South Americans the right to live, work and study in any UNASUR country and to give legal protection to migrants ― similar to freedom of movement rules for citizens of the European Union.

Plans are also afoot for the advancement of financial integration and sovereignty, such as the Bank of the South and Reserve Fund, a currency exchange system to minimize the use of the dollar in intercontinental trade, the creation of a regional body to settle financial disputes, and a common currency “in the medium term.”

African Free Trade Zone

For long an underestimated region, the East African Community, Common Market for Eastern and Central Africa, and Southern African Development Community have already begun negotiations to merge, which is a precursor to a single trade area across the continent.

Africa’s free trade zone is expected to be operational by the end of 2017. They include Angola, Botswana, Burundi, Comoros, Djibouti, Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Lesotho, Libya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Rwanda, Seychelles, Swaziland, South Africa, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

In October 2014, they agreed to launch a tripartite FTA as a way of contributing to economic growth of the blocs and the entire continent. The tripartite FTA will encompass 26 member states from the three blocs with a combined population of 625 million people and a gross domestic product of $1.2 trillion and will account for half of the membership of the African Union.

The free trade area is expected to offer huge opportunities for business and investment and will attract foreign direct investment into the tripartite region. The business community is also expected to benefit from an improved and harmonized trade regime in a 26-nation free trade zone and enjoy the reduced cost of doing business.

Pacific Agreement on Closer Economic Relations ― Plus

The Pacific Agreement on Closer Economic Relations, or PACER, is a framework agreement to deepen trade and investment liberalization in the broader Pacific on a step-by-step basis.

Participants in the PACER Plus negotiations are: Australia, Cook Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Kiribati, Nauru, New Zealand, Niue, Pala, Papua New Guinea, Republic of Marshall Islands, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu.

PACER Plus negotiations for a regional trade and economic integration agreement were launched in August 2009. A series of meetings on the PACER Plus were held in Fiji in December 2014 to progress the negotiations. It is expected to boost private sector development and create economic growth and employment opportunities, and bring the Pacific Forum economies closer.

There are some bumps, of course, with many Pacific countries wary of the dominant roles played by Australia and New Zealand.

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Crucial year for tackling climate change

First published in The Korea Herald.


Toward the end of 2014, there was incremental progress in global efforts to tackle the fallout of climate change. It is now expected that all countries will reach a broad consensus when they meet in Paris in November and December this year.

The United Nations Climate Change Conference was held in Lima, Peru, from Dec. 1-12, to negotiate a global climate agreement. This was the 20th yearly session of the Conference of the Parties, or COP 20, to the 1992 U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, or UNFCC, and the 10th session of the Meeting of the Parties, or CMP 10, to the 1997 Kyoto Protocol.

While this was a conference in the annual series, and was hailed as an important first step ― it resulted in a five-page text now officially known as the Lima Call for Climate Action ― toward a full climate change deal, more attention is being directed toward the 2015 UNFCC in Paris.

In Lima, about 190 nations agreed on the building blocks of a new-style global deal to combat climate change amid warnings that a lot tougher action will be needed to limit increases in global temperatures. The proposals call on countries to reveal how they will cut carbon pollution.

Under the deal, governments will submit national plans for reining in greenhouse gas emissions by an informal deadline of March 31, 2015, to form the basis of a global agreement at the Paris summit.

Notably, most of the tough decisions about how to slow climate change were postponed until then.

The text, agreed two days into overtime after two weeks of talks came close to collapsing, because of objections by emerging economies led by China and India, who were concerned that previous drafts imposed too heavy a burden on emerging economies compared to the advanced ones.

The compromise preserved a notion enshrined in a 1992 climate convention that the rich have to lead the way in making cuts in greenhouse gas emissions. It also satisfied rich nations that want the fast-growing emerging economies to rein in emissions.

Some environmental groups, however, were not satisfied and said that the deal was far too weak. They also warned that negotiators had left too many contentious issues unresolved before the deadline for reaching a deal in Paris.

The countries put off decisions about the legal structure of the agreement, and deferred decisions about ensuring a flow of finance to developing countries. The biggest issue left unresolved for Paris is the burden for cutting greenhouse gas emissions.

However, that does not take away the fact that the Lima deal, with obligations for all nations, is a shift from the 1997 Kyoto Protocol that obliges only the rich to cut emissions.

As per the agreement, national pledges will be added up in a report by Nov. 1, 2015, to assess their aggregate effect on slowing rising temperatures, but there will not be a full-blown review to compare each nation’s level of ambition.

The text also lays out a vast range of options for the Paris accord, including the possibility of aiming for zero net global emissions by 2100 or earlier in a drastic shift from fossil fuels toward renewable energies such as wind and solar power.

If all goes well, China, whose emissions have overtaken those of the U.S., will as part of the agreement formally pledge to cut its greenhouse gas emissions, as will India, Brazil and other emerging economies. But much remains uncertain about the prospects. That is why the year 2015 is very crucial.

There is more hope than ever before that all the countries will be able to iron out their differences. Especially because before the Lima meeting several major economies declared targets to curb emissions. In October, the European Union committed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2030. In November, the U.S. and China jointly announced their reduction targets. The U.S. would reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 26 percent below 2005 levels by 2025, and China would seek to stop CO2 emissions from rising around 2030.

China has also promised to cap its annual coal consumption through 2020, after which its use of coal is expected to decline. In parallel, more than 20 countries have come forward to financially support the Green Climate Fund, a new multilateral fund that will help developing countries shift to pathways of low-carbon and climate-resilient growth. As of now it has received more than $9.5 billion in commitments.

For many years now, the division between the rich and poor nations have reduced hopes at U.N. climate talks. Going forward, it is hoped that this will be a breakthrough year.

As a recent report, “Paris 2015: getting a global agreement on climate change,” notes, a strong deal will make a significant difference in the ability of individual countries to tackle climate change.

“It will provide a clear signal to business, to guide investment toward low carbon outcomes. It will reduce the competitiveness impacts of national policies, and create a simpler, more predictable framework for companies operating in different countries.”

More importantly, a strong climate deal will also help to meet international development aims, which are at increasing risk from rising global temperatures. Eliminating poverty, improving health and building security are all outcomes linked to tackling climate change.

The joint report by Christian Aid, Green Alliance, Greenpeace, RSPB and WWF states that to ensure meaningful action on climate change, the deal must contain the following elements: ambitious action before and after 2020; a strong legal framework and clear rules; a central role for equity; a long-term approach; public finance for adaptation and the low carbon transition; a framework for action on deforestation and land use; and, clear links to the 2015 Sustainable Development Goals.

Making this conference a success is therefore essential. Will it be just another conference of big promises and disconcerting results? We have to wait and see how serious the countries are in tackling climate change.

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ICT evolving for consumers in 2015

First published in The Korea Herald.

Over the last few years, the impact of information and communication technologies on society has been enormous. ICT has deeply affected and reshaped most parts of our society, while radically influencing the global economy. No one can predict with certainty what role it will play in the future, but we do know that it will be significant.

One aspect of the growth of ICT in 2014 has undoubtedly been its entry into the “mobile era.” It is a tool that constitutes a new infrastructure, changing the way our societies function, while its technical applications give us totally new opportunities to develop new and better solutions to our existing problems.

As the latest International Telecommunication Union publication “2014 Measuring the Information Society Report” notes, the world witnessed continued growth in ICT last year and, by end-2014, almost 3 billion people had used the Internet, up from 2.7 billion at end-2013. While the growth in mobile-cellular subscriptions is slowing as the market reaches saturation levels, mobile broadband remains the fastest-growing market segment, with continuous double-digit growth rates in 2014 and an estimated global penetration rate of 32 percent.

International bandwidth has also grown steeply, at 45 percent annually from 2001 and 2013, and developing countries’ share of total international bandwidth increased from around 9 percent in 2004 to almost 30 percent.

The growth in Internet users ― including via smartphones and smart pads ― has witnessed a parallel, steep growth in the volume of Internet content. More and more people are actively participating in the information society by creating, sharing and uploading content and using social media and other Internet-based applications, covering a large range of topics and sectors.

Going ahead, this year we are likely to see a consolidation of the gains that have already been made, and there will progress on many other technologies that are now on the periphery.

Some of the technologies that have been forecast to make a big impact among consumers in 2015 include, among others, mobile cloud computing, the Internet of Things, 3-D printing, wearables and smart machines.

As noted by International Data Corporation, in 2015 the industry is going to accelerate its transition to the “Third Platform” for innovation and growth, built on the technology pillars of mobile computing, cloud services, big data and analytics, and social networking.

“In 2015, the Third Platform will account for one-third of global ICT spending and 100 percent of spending growth. The industry is now entering the most critical period yet in this era: the ‘Innovation Stage,’” it said in a recent report.

Of this, MCC is expected to be a hotbed of activity and will grow briskly. The combination of cloud computing, mobile computing and wireless networks will bring rich computational resources to mobile users and network operators, as well as cloud computing providers.

The ultimate goal of MCC is to enable the execution of rich mobile applications on a plethora of mobile devices, with a rich user experience. And as smartphones and other mobile devices continue to grow in market share, despite the sudden dip witnessed in recent months, there is likely to be more focus on serving the diverse needs of the mobile customer. Especially when it comes to making their data available whenever and wherever they are. There will be a rise in the delivery of on-demand computing resources and with wireless data set to emerge as the largest and fastest-growing segment, one can expect the cloud services to grow in parallel.

Next is the new buzzword, the Internet of Things ― all-encompassing, cutting across existing product categories and industries ― which is supposed to provide an impetus to the so-called “third platform” era.

Its expected growth, along with the increasing consumer demand for an always-on, connected lifestyle, has made startups and large companies bullish on the IoT sector.

The invention of more and more intelligent and connected “things” will push the development of many new machines, applications and solutions. There are, however, many issues that still need to be tackled, including privacy, data ownership and spectrum congestion.

As noted by Jamie Moss, an analyst at the leading ICT research and advisory firm OVUM, “Its definition and constituents are expanding and evolving. All companies involved in the establishment of today’s ICT service infrastructure believe they have a pivotal role to play in the IoT. However, few accurately know what that role will be, or have a realistic estimation of the size of the opportunity. The IoT is beset by far more questions than answers.”

Experts are also expecting significant activity in 3-D printing. According to Gartner, 3-D printing will reach a tipping point over the next three years as the market for relatively low-cost 3-D printing devices continues to grow rapidly and industrial use expands significantly. New industrial, biomedical and consumer applications will continue to demonstrate that 3-D printing is a real, viable and cost-effective means of achieving improved designs, streamlined prototyping and short-term manufacturing.

Another segment that could see an explosion of innovation is wearables. But, even as many anxiously await the release of the iWatch, Apple’s own foray into wearables, the interest already appears to be diminishing.

According to a survey conducted by Ovum in mid-2014 across 15 countries, less than 10 percent of respondents planned to buy a wearable device in the next 12 months. At the same time, more than a dozen smart wearable devices have been launched since, and many of them have fared dismally.

As regards smart machines, there are already prototype autonomous vehicles, advanced robots, virtual personal assistants and smart advisers, which are likely to evolve, ushering in a new age of machine helpers. Experts think that the smart machine era could be the most disruptive in the history of IT. We can only wait and watch to see how they evolve.

Many new gadgets and software programs will make their way to the market in 2015, but the most understated technological change is the promise of new Wi-Fi standards. Emerging standards will increase Wi-Fi performance this year.

Also, when HTML 5 finally hits the market this year, it is set to become an essential technology for many organizations. With this new system, Web development tools will mature, as will the popularity of mobile Web and hybrid applications. Ultimately, businesses will be able to easily and quickly deliver applications across multiple platforms in a way they never could before, while consumers will be able enjoy superior-quality applications.

There will also likely be an uptick in mobile payment technologies as more and more companies roll out their services, and consumers get accustomed to convenient cashless transactions. In addition, there will be more on-demand apps for various services, like Uber, leading to the so-called sharing economy.

In short, be prepared for seamless mobile access, smarter and more flexible wearable mobile devices, and increasingly strong and flexible cloud computing technology. Moreover, mobile office, information sharing, socialization, electronic business, Internet finance and other services will become accessible anytime and anywhere, further improving our lives with added convenience. There will of course be more security challenges as hackers become more sophisticated.

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