"I must say Korea has done very well in this area (e-government). It has a well-developed and well-equipped Information Technology infrastructure. But it was possible because Korea had strong political commitment to develop e-government," said Christian Vergez, a senior official of Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in an interview with The Korea Herald last week.
The dedicated French diplomat is currently in charge of promoting openness and inclusive governance through the use of information and communication technologies.
The OECD official says the Korean government has been transformed and modernized along with the development of e-governance.
"New technology can help (the government) gain better transparency since it provides information and makes the information more accessible, more understandable to people even without facing civil servants in person," said Vergez.
"The leadership in the national level helped (the government) to link objectives of e-government with the broader perspective of economic development but also with transformation of the administration," he added.
The international organization has conducted a series of studies on e-government since 2001 in cooperation with a number of leading countries on Information Technology including Korea.
The project focuses on how e-government promotes transparency, openness, trusts from citizens, and how the new technology can help the government gain efficiency in delivering better services to the public, said Vergez.
In its annual report, the OECD unit has provided recommendations and addressed questions to OECD countries by reviewing their activities on promoting e-government.
Autor/Author: Cho Chung-un
Quelle/Source: The Korea Herald, 28.05.2006
