The Ministry of Information and Communication has launched the 2007 Korea Internet Volunteers program which aims to serve the entire world through technology.

Minister of Information and Communication Rho Jun-hyong and foreign diplomats based in Seoul took part in the launch ceremony on Thursday.

A total of over 320 volunteers will be dispatched in teams as Korean information technology envoys to 36 developing nations in Asia, the Middle East, Central and South America, and Africa.

They will teach locals how to use computers and the Internet while also promoting South Korea.

At the 2001 ASEAN-plus-three Summit in Singapore, South Korea proposed the Internet volunteer program to narrow the information technology gap, which closely mirrors economic lines. Since 2001, Seoul has sent an average of over 16-hundred people a year to more than 60 countries to close that gap.

Meanwhile, the government will send additional teams to areas with large ethnic Korean populations in China, Russia, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan.

The new program complements Seoul's joint efforts with the United Nations, including its organization of Korea-U.N. IT volunteer teams who are dispatched to U.N. agencies and non-governmental organizations around the globe.