During the event, Korea's Ministry of Government Administration and Home Affairs launched an e-government publicity booth to promote the Korean government's vision and strategy of e-government and introduce the nation's top five electronic public services: On-nara Business Process System (BPS), information network village (Invil), the electronic procurement service, the immigration system named Korea Immigration Smart Service, and the mobile phone-based rescue service named U-119.
The Korean government's On-nara BPS makes detailed analysis of tasks by recording every step of the working procedure from decision-making to implementation. Benchmarked from the e-system at the Presidential Blue House, BPS began its pilot service at the Ministry of Government Administration and Home Affairs in July 2005
Invil is designed to reduce the digital divide between rural and urban regions by increasing availability of e-government services and to increase the income level of local residents by boosting local economies through e-commerce and eventually improving the quality of life in rural communities.
Korea's Public Procurement Service has won the e-Asia Award for its online procurement system at the 25th Asia Pacific Council for Trade Facilitation and Electronic Business (AFACT) held in Aug. 2007. PPS is the nation's largest online shopping mall for public organizations.
The United Nations Division for Public Administration and Development Management awarded the United Nations Public Service Award (UNPSA) for 2007 to Korea's Ministry of Justice for its immigration clearance service KISS (Korea Immigration Smart Service).
Dynamic Korea event raises China's public interest in e-government
Not only government officials but also journalists and experts from various sectors and universities visited Korea's e-government booth during the event. Reflecting China's growing interest in establishing e-government, officials from China's Ministry of State Council Information Office, Beijing City office and Ministry of Information, journalists from CCTV and China's major newspapers and experts from electronic technology sector and academia gathered to look around the booth and consider adopting the e-government systems in the future.
“It is very unprecedented for China that it allowed another country to build a publicity booth inside the Great Hall of the People,” one of Chinese staff that participated in the event said, reflecting China's strong interest in Korea's e-government.
The Chinese visitors' curiosity and interest in e-government was very similar to that shown by Koreans at the beginning stages of building an e-government system. Despite the differences in volume, working methods and information environment of the two countries, both Korea and China realize that establishing e-government is a requirement for survival and government administration innovation.
Not only e-government, Chinese visitors also showed strong interest in Invil which allows any individual to access desired information regardless of occupation, age or location. Since nearly 70 percent of Chinese reside in rural areas, the digital divide has become a social issues in China.
Beijng hopes to adopt Seoul's e-government model
To narrow the digital gap, Qian Xiaoqian, Deputy Director of the State Council Information Office in charge of conducting China's e-government project, expressed his will to learn Korea's experience and know-how from building information villages and operate a related pilot project.
Korea's Ministry of Government Administration and Home Affairs and China's State Council Information Office signed a memorandum of understanding in the e-government sector in Feb. 2007. Through the MOU, I hope both countries can have active exchanges so that China can successfully adopt Korea's e-government model in the near future.
Autor(en)/Author(s): Kim Nam-seok
Quelle/Source: Korea.net, 03.09.2007
