Korea’s advanced e-government spread its influence to as far as Latin America.

In response to the request from Latin America to learn from Korea’s best practices in public administration, the Ministry of the Interior formed a delegation specialized in e-government systems, headed by Mr. Kang Sung-jo, a director-general for personal information policy of the ministry, along with 13 other organizations, including the Ministry of Justice (MOJ) and the Korea Internet & Security Agency (KISA), and visits Argentina and El Salvador from July 5 through 15.

The delegation is composed of businesses such as LG CNS, SysOne and Miru Systems, as well as government departments and public agencies. The participating businesses are well-known as exporters of major e-government systems in Korea. SysOne exports immigration system; Miru Systems exports e-voting system. They expect that intergovernmental network between Korea and Latin America will help them make inroads into the regional market, establishing a bridgehead in increasing the export volume of their e-government systems.

The Korean delegation’s visit follows the signing of a memorandum of understanding on cooperation in the area of e-government with El Salvador and Argentina: signing ceremony with the former on June 23 and with the latter on June 30. The official visit this time marks the first concrete action to explore ways of cooperation in the area of e-government between the countries.

To ensure that the Korean delegation understands the status quo and needs of e-government in the partner countries of the region and provide practical assistance in e-government development, the Ministry of the Interior put much effort from the beginning when they formed the delegation with various stakeholders.

Therefore, officials from the Korean National Election Commission were selected to visit Argentina as the country is planning to introduce its e-voting system this August; officials from the Korea Internet & Security Agency, in charge of electronic signature system, were invited to go to El Salvador as the country passed the electronic signature law last October. As the delegation was formed to meet the specific needs of the partner countries, its visit this time appealed to both of their partner countries.

In Argentina, the Korean delegation held the “Korea-Argentina Cooperation Forum on E-Government” on July 7, jointly with the Argentine Ministry of Modernization. The Forum was held at Casa Rosada, presidential palace of the country.

At the Forum, Mr. Bae Il-kwon, a director for international cooperation for e-government, delivered a keynote speech themed on Korea’s government innovation agenda called Government 3.0. During his presentation, he introduced some of the best practices in Korea’s e-government, such as ICT-based communication with citizens (by the Seoul Metropolitan City), WorkNet job portal (by the Korea Employment Information Service), immigration control system (by the Ministry of Justice), e-procurement system (by the Public Procurement Service), Government Integrated Data Center and cybersecurity system (by the National Computing & Information Agency), and Standard Framework of E-Government (by the National Information Society Agency).

With the closing remarks delivered by Argentine Minister Andres Ibara of Modernization and the keynote speech by Mrs. Maria Ines Baque, Secretary of Management and Innovation of the Ministry of Modernization, over 120 Argentine officials from the Congress, the government of the city of Buenos Aires, and the provincial government of Santa Fe attended the Forum, showing their deep interest in Korea’s advanced e-government systems.

On the previous day on July 6, the Korean delegates had one-on-one in-depth meetings with their counterparts in Argentina, including Mr. Guillermo Baistrocchi, a director-general in charge of international cooperation at the Argentine Ministry of Modernization. They discussed ways of bilateral cooperation to accelerate government innovation and develop e-government in their respective country.

After the Forum on July 7, the Korean delegation had a meeting with Mr. Fernando Straface, General Secretary of Government and International Relations of the City of Buenos Aires in order to explore practical ways of local government-level cooperation, specifically in e-procurement system.

After visiting Argentina, the Korean delegation moved to El Salvador on July 11. After a meeting with the El Salvadorian senior secretary to the President for technology planning, the delegation held the “Korea-El Salvador Cooperation Forum on E-Government” at Hilton Princess San Salvador on July 12. At the Forum in San Salvador, Korea’s best practices, such as Seoul Transport Operation & Information Service, WorkNet job portal (by the Korea Employment Information Service), immigration control system (by the Ministry of Justice), e-procurement system (by the Public Procurement Service), Government Integrated Data Center and cybersecurity system (by the National Computing & Information Agency), and Standard Framework of E-Government (by the National Information Society Agency), were introduced. At the Forum in San Salvador, LG CNS hosted a business session, delivering a presentation.

In San Salvador are the secretariat of the Central American Integration System (SICA) and the local branch of the Inter-American Development Bank, and the Korean delegates are planning to visit the secretariat and the IDB office in San Salvador to reaffirm their willingness to enhance cooperation in the area of e-government between Korea and Central America. That way, the Korean government aims to maintain momentum for cooperation and lay a firm foundation to spread Korea’s e-government systems across Central America.

Director-General Kang Sung-jo of the Ministry of the Interior commented, “The Korean delegation, formed based on private-public partnership to promote Korea’s e-government, contributed to bringing Korea’s e-government and government innovation agenda to as far as Latin America.” He then continued, “I will make sure that working-level exchanges continue in order to share Korea’s best practices in e-government as well as the related laws and institutions, and also offer active support to Korean businesses willing to enter into the regional market.”