Korean IT companies have sold e-government systems to local governments in Japan since 2004. But this is the first such deal between the two countries’ central governments. Japan has experiences difficulties setting up and managing e-government systems; investments made by central and local governments have often overlapped. Korea has had similar problems in the past, and has gone a long way to solving them.
The Japanese government hopes to acquire the Korean technology that integrates the e-government systems of central and local governments, which can be easily imported by Japan because the two countries have similar administrative systems. A memorandum of understanding was agreed between Japan’s Ministry of Internal Affairs and Korea’s Ministry of Public Administration and Security.
Besides the symbolic meaning of “an historically deep-rooted, emotional stand-off between Korea and Japan”, the deal shows an important step for the Korean government in “making a score” on one of its National Informatization Plan objectives - exporting Korean e-government systems to other countries, said Professor Cheol Oh, Chair of the Department of Public Administration at Soongsil University in Seoul.
“The Lee Administration has, since its inception, emphasised expanding the horizon of Korea’s e-government activities globally, which is somewhat linked to other critical policy objectives, that is, improving the global image of Korea,” said Prof Oh.
Korea topped the 2010 United Nations E-Government rankings released at the beginning of the year, rising five places on the 2008 ranking. Japan fell six places into 17th.
Prof Oh noted: “I do not think Japan is behind Korea in terms of technology. But Japan would benefit from knowing how Korea has successfully disentangled the complexity of two overlapping governments, and integrated central and local government without too much fuss.”
However, he added that the deal would take time for Japan to reap benefits from Korea’s expertise. “IT is just a tool for integrating the two levels of government and, therefore, enhancing administrative efficiency. What is more important is the reengineering of internal governance processes and preparing required institutional conditions (such as laws, budget, conflict management, etc) for combining the two.”
“I hope the MOU turns out to be an opportunity for mutual learning and, more importantly, to be a true showcase that we’re living in a borderless society that ideas and policies travel freely to wherever they are needed.”
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Robin Hicks
Quelle/Source: futureGov, 09.04.2010
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