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Why and How the Korea transformed to the global E-Government Leaders?

- Focus on the United Nations E-Government Survey -

Choong-Sik Chung (cschung@ks.ac.kr)

Professor, KyungSung University in Korea, Department of Public Administration

ABSTRACT

The Korean e-Government began with the e-Government portal site (www.egov.go.kr) on November

1, 2002. After going through continuous efforts in e-Government and national informatization, Korea

has become one of the global e-Government leaders - obtaining the highest scores in ‘E-government

Development Index’ and ‘E-participation Index’. According to the 2003 United Nations annual report,

Korea ranked second in Asia and 13th in the world in terms of its use of electronic technology in

providing public services. Singapore, in 12th place overall, was the only Asian nation ahead of Korea in

the electronic government ranking of the 2003 UN world report. Korea moved up two notches from

15th place in 2002, and has carried out one of the most dramatic projects in instituting electronic

transaction service.

After going through continuous efforts in e-Government and national informatization, Korea has

become one of the global E-government leaders - obtaining the highest scores in ‘E-government

Development Index’ and ‘E-participation Index’. Korea’s E-government Development Index ranking

assessed by the United Nations improved from 15th in 2001 to the top in 2010 out of 192 countries

worldwide, and its E-participation Index ranking was also ranked 1st in 2010, 2012 & 2014. In addition,

many of Korea’s E-government practices until now have been introduced to the world as the best cases

and received worldwide acknowledgement.

The success factors of Korean e-Government are summarized as a strong political leadership, clear

vision and policy objective, project’s strategic priority and human & financial resource distribution. In

this study, the leadership and strategies, as well as the legislation issues of the e-Government initiatives

in Korea were examined. The future e-Government is being developed towards seamless and

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consolidated services, based on the e-Government projects that have been promoted so far. The new e-

Government strategies will be taken into account from various perspectives, especially in terms of

strategy, e-Government services, citizens’ e-participation and strengthened infrastructure for e-

Government.

Currently, the overall progress in the Korea e-government initiative is not closely related to

governmental reform. Therefore, e-Government initiatives in Korea are not just a President’s

administration issue, but an evolving administrative reform whose vision and strategy through citizen

centric is trying to adapt to democratic governance. The Korean e-Government is now progressing,

however, it still has a long way to go to reach full interactive service delivery and government

integration.

I. INTRODUCTION

The Republic of Korea has made major strides in Information and Communication

Technology(ICT) over the last five decades. In 1960, Korea had a telephone penetration

of 0.36 per 100 inhabitants, barely one tenth of the then world average. By 1981, Korea

caught up with the world average. Now, Korea leads the world in broadband Internet

access penetration. Korea is the leading example of a country rising from a low level of

ICT access to one of the highest in the world.

Korea’s economic growth is often described as a miracle. Starting with a per capita

income of less than US$100 in 1960, Korea averaged an annual economic growth rate

of eight percent a year for the next five decades. By 2010, per capita income was

US$20,000 and Korea’s economy ranked 13th in the world. The focus of growth has

been manufacturing and exports. As Korea’s economy has matured, its manufacturing

base has shifted from textiles, to chemicals, then machinery and later electronics. Today

knowledge and information products and services play an important and increasing role

in the Korean economy.

Korea’s emergence as the world leader in ICT – in field such as broadband Internet,

semiconductors and third generation mobile and so on- it is not an accident. The

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government has specifically targeted this objective. It is no coincidence that the period

of most intensive investment in broadband infrastructure corresponded with recovery

from the worst effects of the Asian Financial Crisis in the late 1990s. Again it was

because the Korean government specifically planned this, despite the general level of

austerity imposed by IMF’s conditions for their assistance.

After going through continuous efforts in e-Government and national

informatization, Korea has become one of the global E-government leaders - obtaining

the highest scores in ‘E-government Development Index’ and ‘E-participation Index’.

Korea’s E-government Development Index ranking assessed by the United Nations

improved from 15th in 2001 to the top in 2010 out of 192 countries worldwide, and its

E-participation Index ranking was also ranked 1st in 2010, 2012 & 2014(UN, 2010;

2012; 2014). In addition, many of Korea’s E-government practices until now have been

introduced to the world as the best cases and received worldwide acknowledgement.

In addition, the level of Korea’s informatization is highly recognized by the world,

as can be seen from the fact that Korea has ranked 1st for three consecutive years in

ITU’s Digital Opportunity Index. The results of Korea’s e-Government services are

selected as the best practices and their excellence is being acknowledged by the rest of

the world. For example, with the e-Customs system called UNI-PASS that was

established to complete an online export and import system for the first time in the

world, Korea Customs Service won the WCO (World Customs Organization) Trophy in

2006 for intellectual property right protection with the fastest customs system among

169 member countries(MOPAS, 2008).

An e-Government initiative is recognized as a key strategic requirement for a

knowledge-based society in the 21st century(Accenture, 2001; Deloitte Consulting,

2001; Gartner Research, 2002). Many governments including Korea are allocating

resources to establish an e-Government. An Internet-based government service can

deliver government services to citizens and private businesses more efficiently with

broader access and cost savings across government agencies. As an information

network, an e-Government can increase citizen participation in government to achieve

an ‘open government’.

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Korea began to channel efforts into laying the foundation for an e-Government since

the late 1970s. Through the Five National Computer Network project of the early 1980s,

the Comprehensive Plan for Korea Information Infrastructure Establishment project,

and the National Basic Information System project of the late 1980s, the Korean

government established a high-speed communications network and stored vital

government records- resident registration, real estate, and vehicle records - in a digital

format to create the foundation for an e-Government.

The creation of an e-Government platform is necessary to keep ahead with the

emergence of a new paradigm that will change government practices and services in the

21st century(OECD, 2003). An e-Government will play a key role in expanding

national competitiveness(NPR, 1997). An e-Government initiative is the most effective

citizen-centered system available to meet the needs of citizens and private businesses

and will provide quality and faster government services. The government will become

more transparent, effective, and accountable through an e-Government service and will

expand the use of information technology among citizens and private businesses(OMB,

2001; NAO, 2002).

The success factors of Korean e-Government are summarized as a strong political

leadership, clear vision and policy objective, project’s strategic priority and human &

financial resource distribution. Generally, it is known that government will become

more transparent, effective through an e-Government service. Therefore, the main

object of this paper is to verify that why and how the Korea transformed to the global E-

Government Leaders. This paper examines the e-Government initiatives in Korea focus

on the United Nations E-Government Survey period from January 2001 to December

2014.

II. UNITED NATIONS E-GOVERNMENT SURVEY

The UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) has since taken over

assessing e-government since 2002 in collaboration with the American Society for

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Public Administration(ASPA). This E-Government evaluation process has been

approved and passed on to other national policy makers of the member states of the UN

to successfully promote E-Government and e-government decision making throughout

the world. In particular the Korean government has taken measures to evaluate these

sensitive materials in which to respond to the examination of these international

organizations and in detail adopt to the criteria given by the UN and its member states.

1. The stages of E-Government evaluation and criteria set out by the UN

E-government and its criterion vary from state to state but the UN has created an

evaluation method by dividing the level of E-Government of member states into two

indexes, that of development (EGDI) and online participation (e-participation index).

The contents of these indices are as follows:

1) E-Government Development Index (EGDI)1

The EGDI is largely a measure of online services, which includes the online service

level, information communications technology (ICT) and human capital.

(1) Online Service Level

The online service level evaluation is a quantitative assessment that is in accordance

of the UN indexes. It is mainly carried out at the national government portal site or the

official UN website. Specifically it measures the countries portal, health, education,

social welfare, labor, finance and related government sites. Each step is measured and

the measures are standardized (approximately 50,000 related services are included). The

specific measurement of online service level is as follows: All measures are done using

surveys from the country representative portal, health, social welfare, education, labor,

finance, foreign affairs and environmental ministry websites. Korean National Portal

1 The EGDI also consists of the E-Readiness Index which has been modified since 2008 and uses the base year of 2010.

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Minwon 24, Hi Korea included and survey languages are Arabic, Chinese, English,

French, Russian and Spanish. Some websites also investigate the local language.

The calculation method is normalized to the 1-point scale to assess whether the

service provided.

n Country scores – (minimum value of the surveyed countries) / (Surveyed countries using maximum-minimum values of the countries surveyed)

Since 2008 the measurement methodology has been altered to complement existing

problems and to give a more fair and accurate measurement of online service level.

Evaluators reduced the measurement period from 60 days to 35 days and are limited to

a maximum of two times in their attempt to measure online service level. This is done

to improve fairness and gives evaluators a reasonable time frame in which to evaluate.

By adding new detailed questions and indicators which correspond with the UN e-

government standards, tolerance and standard deviation was reduced, which is included

in steps three and four. Information gathering procedures were made more specific and

given a different rating score to which the questions in concern were provided more

information to existing questions. Education and training measurements were added

based on the status of ordinary citizens throughout the given country.

(2) Information and Communication Infrastructure Level

At the information and communication level there are five indicators, internet users

in total, wired high speed internet subscription number, landline phone, mobile phone

and wired internet subscribers. This e-specific measurement is as follows: Regional data

collection International Telecommunication Union(ITU). Calculation method given

equal weight per item;

※ index value = (actual measured value - minimum value) / (maximum value -

minimum value)

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1/5 (Internet users index) + 1/5 (wired high-speed Internet subscription number index) + 1/5 (Landline time player index) + 1/5 (mobile telephone subscription number index) + 1/5 (wired Internet subscriptions The number of indicators)

(3) Level of Human Capital

Human capital levels reflect the acceptability of two indicators (15 or older adult

literacy rate and the percentage of school attendance) of e-government services as a

weighted average based on the human capacity report data along with data from

UNESCO and the UNDP.

2/3 Adult literacy rate indicator + 1/3 percentage of school attendance indicator

2) E-Participation Index

The online participation index of regional e-Government website (representing the

national portal, health, social welfare, education, labor, finance, foreign affairs, and the

Environmental Ministry website) uses electronic information, E-consultancy, and

provide services related to electronic decision-making to assess the degree to be

determined by the total scores after normalization by 1 point.

(The country one point score - minimum value of the target country survey) / (Surveyed countries of the maximum-minimum values of the countries surveyed)

(1) Information Provided Index

The official government policy of online participation of citizens required for

induction takes into account participation opportunities associated with said information,

and determines if the known information is valid to provide basic information necessary.

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The electronic Information provided is now used within a growing number of countries

which try to use the three indicators of the most diverse forms of citizen participation

services using the latest Web 2.0 as an item that is best run on the country's participation

index.

(2) Policy Participation Index

The electronic participation index is a measure of official online policy meetings,

which includes the Internet, blogs, chat, instant messaging, along with publishing

channels of which citizen opinion and feedback about how the government and civil

inter-communication are valued by the citizenry.

In the past, this area was only 7% of the full members, and the only area lacking

enough participation to get a score of 50 points or more. More recently, however, due to

the activation of the policy involved using the SNS and mobile phones as a measure

higher level of countries have been participating in this index.

(3) Electronic Decisions Index

The electronic decision index is about citizen participation and its results help in the

decision-making process and also add to measure the government's attitude towards

citizen feedback. This field was recognized in Korea in 2010 and has since then been

the best electronic assessment decision level in the world, and continues to maintain the

highest level of assessment.

2. UN e-Government Survey Result Analysis

1) 2004 Survey Results

The results of the UN evaluation for year 2004, 191 membership countries were

evaluated for ‘E-government Readiness Index’, and Korea received 0.8575 points,

accounting fifth place in the world (Asia No. 1). This e-Government level has improved

8 levels compared to that in 2003 at 13th place, which facilitated our country to be

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admitted to entering the advanced countries in the world.

In 2004, United States maintained in the first place, Denmark at second, United

Kingdom at third, Sweden ranked fourth, and Singapore in the eighth place (Asia No. 2).

While receiving the 2004 UN evaluation result, the evaluation also stated the most

worth mention of South Korea was the successful proliferation and integration of e-

government.

In category evaluations, Web Service Index was evaluated in fourth place (‘03 year

18th), Information and Communication Infrastructure Index in 12th ('03 year 10th),

Human Capital Index in 15th (‘03 year 20th), and the evaluation showed the web service

was the major improvement of the whole.

While the evaluation highlighted South Korean government in web service category,

a special feature article has emphasized the electronic civil service system (G4C) as the

best practice of the public service in the world.

2) 2005 Survey Results

Evaluation of the year 2005 UN e-Government Readiness Index was the same as last

year that placed at 5th place (of 191 countries) in the world, and the e-Government

ranking determined the phase of entering developed countries. According to the UN

report, United States maintained as the world's No. 1, followed by Denmark and

Sweden, at 2nd and 3rd places, respectively, and United Kingdom and our country ranked

4th and 5th, respectively. Especially in Asia, Korea is better than Japan (14th) and

Singapore (7th) that once again confirmed we are the leading country.

In addition, sector ranking of e-Government readiness index rises as a whole

compared to the previous year as recorded 0.8727 (2005) from 0.8575 (2004).

Specifically, accounted for the world’s fourth place after the United States, the United

Kingdom, Singapore in the web measurement index, IT Infrastructure sector rose three

levels to 9th place, and human capital rose three levels to 12th place.

In particular, the provision of electronic information (E-information), electronic

consultation between citizens and government (E-consultation) and indicating the

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degree of commitment of the government to participate electronically (E-participation

Index) for policy decision-making process (E-decision-making) is ranked tie at 4th place

with Canada (12th at ’03), showed continued rising compared to 6th place in 2004.

Meanwhile, in year 2005 UN report, it introduced our country’s electronic

government representative portal (http://www.egov.go.kr) and electronic procurement

system for Office of Supply (Government e-Procurement System, http://g2b.go.kr) as

the best practice example of constructing a good e-government. The highly evaluated

representative portal e-government is able to choose civil services within all kinds of

services and be able to process payments at once by using variety of methods including

electronic money (utilizing the concept of E-commerce shopping cart), and the highly

praised e-Procurement(GePS) was introduced as a best practice that from purchase

request to bidding information and payment are all condensed to one window.

3) 2008 Survey Results

Evaluation of the 2008 UN E-government Readiness Index is dropped one down to

6th in the world (among 192 countries) compared to that in 2005. According to the UN

result, the United States who placed 1st place for three consecutive years was replaced

by Sweden, and a ranking of Denmark (2nd place), Norway (3rd), United States (4th), and

the Netherlands (5th) were assessed. The great change of ranking in year 2008 appeared

in the breakthrough of the three countries in Scandinavian Peninsula, which accounted

for 70% of the top 35 in EU member states. On the other hand, United Kingdom and

Singapore who ranked second and third in 2005 fell out of the top 10 ranking

significantly.

The reason our country has recorded the 6th place is because even though the

infrastructure index and human capital is rising, the measurement index of web level

had fallen. The step-by-step look at the web level of national status as follows:

Among the 192 countries first surveyed Central Africa, including Somalia and

Zambia, where the survey was not possible because there were no websites, and all

other countries has passed the first stage. Stage 2 (development), information is

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abundant and provided throughout the world, and links between the periodic websites

have been made well. In addition, we have achieved analyzing 80% of all the countries

for the accumulated data and information.

However, third stage (interaction) of the government corresponding to the interactive

communication services between citizens/business only offered 20-30% of the total and

certainly shows the unsatisfactory state compare to the first and second stages. In real

situation, the representative provision of updating contents, only 58 countries (30%) is

possible to provide e-mail updates.

Stage 4 (electronic business transactions) appears even larger gap among the top

countries. Our country was evaluated the best among all 30 countries (20%) for online

article submission service. Currently only 11 countries are capable of tracking a variety

of online authentication procedures.

Stage 5 (integrated connection), in providing services, there has exceptional gap at

basic participation induction service sector. Only 15 countries (8%) provide online

documentation and email response process with time alarm function, and 21 countries

(11%) remain providing online discussion and basic civic engagement function.

In Korea, lack of services was evaluated on the methods of utilizing communication

service delivery such as PDA and mobile, and meticulous parts such as active

participation induction services between citizens and national department heads

feedback time alarm. But Korea's official portal (www.korea.go.kr) has been assessed as

excellent level of official website, in particular the Chuncheon city website was

introduced as the best practices of direct participation and feedback between the mayor

and citizens.

The year 2008 survey result of online participation index moved up 2 rankings. In

particular, the electronic decision-making division recorded the first place in the world.

Specifically 'e-people' site (www.epeople.go.kr) is recognized for its excellence in

collecting policy-related opinions from individual users with continuous alarm of small

pop-up windows to receive present-time citizen opinions.

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4) 2010 Survey Results

In 2010 UN assessment, Korea was ranked in fact as well as in name of No.1 of all

192 countries for e-government evaluation. There were changes in 2010 evaluation

where Sweden was ranked 12th while was ranked the first place in 2008, Denmark (2nd

→ 7th), Norway (3rd → 6th) that the Nordic countries dropped down significantly. By

division, the communication infrastructure index has dropped by using the number of

Internet users and mobile phone subscribers to evaluate, and on the other hand, web

measurement index for evaluating e-government website has increased rapidly to first

place in 2010 from the 6th place in year 2008. Therefore, the main cause of the world's

leading rating can be seen to be due to the improvement of the e-government website

service level.

(Figure 1) UN 2010 Survey Result

Each sector evaluation result is analyzed as follows. First of all, in the web

measurement index, UN has evaluated our country has average 78% achievement in all

four stages of the online service maturity model. This in comparison with 2008 shows

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significant progress has done in interactive services and customized service for citizens

and that was why we ranked the first place in overall.

In the Information and Communication Infrastructure Index, due to the expansion of

information and communications infrastructure in major developed countries, all

indicators has dropped except the number of Internet users from 10th place in 2008

down to 13th place this year. The drop of ranking can be analyzed to owing to the

popularization of mobile phone caused the rapid declined numbers of landline telephone

and prepaid subscribers that made our country’s specialty became insignificant and

caused disadvantage of total count of mobile phone subscribers. Human Capital Index

has no major changes compared to 2008 that evaluated at 7th place.

Subsequently online participation index (E-Participation Index) was ranked number 1

among 192 countries (year 2008: 2nd place) is considered as a proof of ensuring public

participation opportunities through online and the best island country in domestic and

foreign countries. While Spain (34th → 3rd), the United Kingdom (25th→ 4th), Japan

(11th → 6th) rapidly improved their rankings; the 1st place United States in 2008 fell 5

ranks to the 6th place. Though in Korea the division implement level was somehow

declined compared to 2008, promotion of online citizen participation using Web 2.0

services such as instant messaging and blogs were rated as improved.

In 2010 the UN evaluated excellent for our e-government services which evaluation

belongs to 3,4 levels (e-commerce, integrated processing) in the e-government

development index, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Japan, Singapore, United

Kingdom, and United States were evaluated as leading countries in the e-commerce and

integrated processing. UN has evaluated our national representative portal

(http://www.korea.go.kr) as exceptional design with greatly outstanding service

provision, health, welfare (Ministry of Health and Welfare), and education (Ministry of

Education, Science and Technology) sector was analyzed and received the highest score

in the governmental ministry web site evaluation. In addition, the Civil Rights

Commission has actively run the e-people website (http://www.epeople.go.kr) that

through single window, it strengthens transparency of public administration, corruption

improvement, and citizen participation, and which contribution was introduced as

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excellent example.

The objective evaluation by UN together with our country’s rise in rank can see our

efficacy in initiative respond is another important reason that our country is prepared.

The government established “UN e-government index raising plan” in March 2009 and

five ministries such as Ministry of Government Administration and Home Affairs,

Ministry of Strategy and Finance, and Ministry of Education and Science were working

together for “e-government index respond TF” to analyze vulnerable factors and

prepare for the respond plan. In addition, through interviewing high-ranking officers of

Korean e-Government promotion rating organizations about UN rating organization, the

effort of Korean government supporting e-government promotion and the policy

performance was delivered efficiently.

5) 2012 Survey Results

After achieving the highest achievable score in 2010 in the UN e-government

evaluation, Korea had once again won the top award in 2012 making it two consecutive

times this happened. The UN results on February 28, 2012 released by the 2012

evaluation of e-government, Korea led overall in both online participation accounts of

the e-government development. Of the 190 countries surveyed by the UN in the ‘E-

government Survey 2012’, our country was first, followed by the Netherlands, the UK,

Demark, France moved to sixth and Sweden was seventh while the second largest in

2010, the US fell down to fifth place. While the results of the e-participation index were

as follows; the Netherlands were tied for first place with Korea, Singapore and

Kazakhstan were tied for second place, the United States and the United Kingdom are

tied for third place, Israel moved into fourth while the 2010 third place winner Spain

fell to number fourteen on the list.

The 2012 e-government development index had an overall increase in all indicators

from 2010. The indicators showed a higher than average 0.4877 to 0.4406 points. This

can be seen as effort made by many countries having provided an improved online

services to meet the needs of the citizens reflected. By region, Europe 0.7188 points,

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East Asia 0.6344 points, North America by 0.8559 points, West Asia with 0.3464 points,

and Africa increasing by 0.2762 points Africa showing that there still exists a regional

digital divide.

The evaluation results of our successful promotion in areas such as the governments

continued investment and efforts for the active promotion of the next generation of e-

government strategy of "smart electronic government (Smart Gov) strategy" can be said

to reflect objective indicators. In addition, in 2010 Korea did not settle on the

assessment given in 2010. As of January 2011, to show we are leading the world, the

establishment of a "smart electronic government (Smart Gov) strategy (2011-2015)" to

show that under steady implementation happens successfully. Korea set out the specific

contents are as follows;

First, the "life uncomfortable complaints reporting service", "SOS national relief

services", such as the characteristics of mobile devices (mobile phones, location-based

applications, cameras) to identify innovative services that take advantage of the strong

networking services such as Twitter, social networking services such as Facebook the

use of which has greatly expanded the policy information ability and provides an

interactive communication channel for the government to the general public.

Second, birth, employment, moving and death and all things related to life including

major complaints, such as the national death can be done once by manually apply online

removing the need to visit the relevant authorities. Other functions such as non-stop

(Non-Stop) "Living complaints batch service" that handles 22 kinds of life activities,

has provided that in which free flow of information from government inter-national,

government-to-business services and other information creates a "fusion (Connected)

government." The UN assessment in 2012 while separated by the "Online Services"

created a leveling system from that which is Emerging (1 step) → Enhanced (2 steps)

→ Transactional (3 phase) → Connected (step 4). The country has achieved the highest

level in 87% of the steps connected with that evaluation.

Third, all of this information is to bridge the information gap between local town

issues, the disabled and handicapped, translation and intermediary services,

multicultural education broadcasting and to give IT services to vulnerable groups

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everywhere through the provision of these services which access used to be so limited

and unavailable.

In parallel with these policy efforts, the "UN International Conference on e-

Government (May 2011)", "Global e-Government Forum (December 2011)" the UN has

customized promotions for our “six point rating” in attracting international events

throughout the country and awarding us for playing an important role for providing

efficient success of implementing this new program.

In January 2011 in preparation for the 2012 assessment base unit, the Ministry of

Foreign Affairs and a commission of ten ministries, helped to participate in configuring

the 'UN e-government evaluation corresponding government-TF' analysis vulnerability

factors and are working to solve the problems we all face.

The point is presented by UN 2012 6 evaluation is "The Six e-Government

Initiatives" ① ② enhance user access and education, Internet access and mobile

③ ④connectivity, vulnerable services enhance accessibility, multi- ⑤channel services,

government-wide one- ⑥stop the service, including environmental information.

6) 2014 Survey Results

Korea achieved the first rank again in UN e-Government Survey 2014 for the third

time following 2010 and 2012. Such result proves that UN has officially acknowledged

that Korea has the world’s top-level e-government, while at the same time provides the

opportunity for Korea’s e-government to serve as the global standard. UN announced

the result of 2014 e-Government Survey on 23rd June 2014 and Korea won first place

both in e-Government Development Index and e-Participation Index.

The theme of the 2014 edition of the United Nations E-Government Survey—E-

Government for the Future We Want—is particularly relevant to addressing the multi-

faceted and complex challenges that our societies face today. The publication addresses

critical aspects of e-government for sustainable development articulated along eight

chapters.

Due to a number of factors, there are wide disparities among regions and countries in

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their state of e-government development as observed throughout the 2014 Survey. One

clear observation is that the income level of a country is a general indicator of economic

capacity and progress, which thus influences its e-government development. Access to

ICT infrastructure and the provision of education, including ICT literacy, are related to

the income level of a nation. The absence of these factors hinders the implementation of

e-government initiatives.

(Figure 2) UN 2014 Survey Result

The Republic of Korea has retained the top spot in 2014 with its continued leadership

and focus on e-government innovation. Australia (2nd) and Singapore (3rd) have both

increased considerably over their 2012 global rankings. As in previous years, the 2014

Survey shows that Europe continues to lead with the highest regional E-Government

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Development Index (EGDI) followed by the Americas led by the United States of

America (ranked 7th globally); Asia led by the Republic of Korea; Oceania led by

Australia; and Africa led by Tunisia (ranked 75th globally). Nevertheless, the 2014

Survey shows that each geographical region exhibits high internal diversity. The leading

nations in Europe include France (4th), Netherlands (5th), United Kingdom (8th) and

Finland (10th). There is little doubt that underpinning this aggregate snapshot is the

level of economic, social and political development of the countries concerned, and one

of the primary factors contributing to a high level of e-government development is past

and current investment in telecommunication, human capital and provision of online

services.

III SUCCESS FACTORS OF E-GOV IN KOREA

Generally, the major success factors of e-Government are political, social, economic

and industrial environment, political determination and leadership, vision and policy

objective, project’s strategic priority, implementation system, human and financial

resource distribution, cooperation among institutions, common framework, feedback,

and learning (Song and Cho, 2007). When organizing these factors from system

perspective, the factors become environment, input (political determination and

leadership, vision and policy objective, and project priority), transformation

(implementation system, distribution of human, financial, and technical resources, and

cooperative structure among institutions), output (performance), and feedback

(feedback and learning). The United Nationals conducted an E-Government Survey

periodically and the Korean government earned the first rank consecutively (UN, 2010,

2012, 2014). The success factors of the Korean government’s e-government initiatives

could be summarized as follows.

1. Strong Government Leadership

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1) Kim Dae-Jung Administration(1998-2003)

Since the early 1990s, Korean Presidents exercised strong leadership and

demonstrated a high level of willingness to promote e-government. Based on such

strong government leadership for e-government, the Korean government initiated e-

government development plans government-widely for the past two decades. In doing

so, such initiatives of e-government brought to the public sector not only the

introduction of ICT but also a broad range of government innovation.

Kim Dae-Jung was elected in the 15th presidential election on December 18, 1997

and sworn in as President on February 25, 1998. During the early stage of President

Kim’s administration, Korea was acclaimed as an honors graduate of the International

Monetary Fund (IMF) tutelage after the 1997-1998 Asian financial crisis. The country

has made an economic recovery. However, as the pain of change has affected more and

more Koreans, restructuring of the economy has been sporadic in the corporate,

financial, labor, and public work sectors. The pain of each phase in the restructuring has

turned another group against the reform.

At the end of 2000, three years of “hardware” restructuring that focused on

manpower reductions and privatization had caused many stakeholders to go against the

reform in the banking, corporate, and labor areas. Therefore, under this political

economy situation, Kim’s administration could not carry out drastic reforms anymore.

Kim’s administration recognized that it was timely to introduce a new era of “software”

reform into the governmental sector which had relatively no stakeholders.

The Ministry of Planning and Budget (MPB) and the Office of the Secretary to the

President for Policy and Planning agreed that public sector reform should be linked to

the implementation of e-Government (SCEG: 2003). Therefore, an ICT-based

government reform package was formulated as an e-Government initiative which was

selected as a remarkable presidential achievement within the remainder of Kim’s term

of office.

Kim Dae-Jung Administration was the first in Korea to upgrade an issue of the e-

Government initiative as a major presidential agenda, and continued to push the project

as part of the administrative reform. Also, by establishing the infrastructure for high-

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speed information and communications as well as the promulgation of the e-

Government Act for the first time in the world, it can be said that the Kim Dae-Jung

Administration had developed the foundations to implement the e-Government

initiatives.

2) Roh Moo-Hyun Administration(2003-2008)

The President Roh Moo-Hyun had a strong will to reform the government. The Roh

Moo-Hyun administration was inaugurated in February 2003 with the public's

expectation for e-Government and government innovation. The Roh, Moo-Hyun

government intended to maximize the effects of government innovation by linking with

e-Government. To achieve this, the e-Government Professional Committee was

organized under the Presidential Committee on Governmental Innovation and

Decentralization in April 2003. This committee confirmed and announced e-

Government Plan and Roadmap after three months of groundwork. The Roh, Moo-

Hyun government pursued the thirty one activities of e-Government Project with the

four strategies. The first strategy was to connect the e-Government project with the

administrative reform, the second was user-oriented project, the third was goal setting

and phased performance management, and the fourth was the linkage of the project with

ICT industry promotion.

President Roh had chaired the weekly senior officials’ meeting for national

management since the early stages of his term, and showed his dedication towards the

e-Government projects. As such, the Roh Administration continued to include the e-

Government projects as part of the presidential agenda, and pushed to implement the 31

e-Government Roadmap Projects over the 5-year term. Over the 5 years of Roh’s term

from 2003 to 2008, Korea has leapt from rank 15 in his inauguration year of 2003 to

rank 6 in the UN e-Government ranking in his final year of 2008(UN, 2005; 2008).

Furthermore, Korea has ranked first place since 2010. Therefore, it is fair to say that the

foundations for the current place in the UN e-Government rankings has been

established since the Roh Administration.

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3) Lee Myung-Bak Administration(2008-2013)

With the launch of the Lee, Myung-Bak administration, the MIC was abolished and

the function of the national informatization was transferred into the MOPAS, which was

reorganized from the MOGAHA. Also, a new organization in charge of e-Government

project was needed as the Presidential Committee on Governmental Innovation and

Decentralization was abolished. In other words, the Lee Administration did not promote

a wide range of government reforms and its main focus was not government reform.

In the second half of the advanced stage, the Lee Myung-Bak administration

completed the five activities which were not completed in the Second e-Government

Project and formulated a new e-Government policy. The strategy of the e-Government

policy was to pursue e-Government within the framework of national informatization

like the early period of the full promotion stage because the informatization

environment in Korea has been enriched and most e-Government activities of the first

advanced stage were finished.

The Lee, Myung-Bak government selected five areas, twenty one agendas, and

seventy two informatization activities. The fourth area, “knowledge government which

works well,” is an e-Government project that consisted of nineteen activities. The

National Informatization Basic Plan has been executed with the four phases: preparation,

formulation of the implementation plan, implementation, and utilization.

Since its early stage, the Lee Administration declared the launching of a new

government, and showed efforts to break from the past. The administration further

labels the previous 10 years with Kim Dae-Jung and Roh Moo-Hyun as “the lost 10-

years,” and attempted to differentiate its policies from its predecessors. In the process,

the e-Government initiatives were regarded as being part of the past, and accordingly,

the Lee Administration renamed the projects and used the phrase National

Informatization, instead of using the term “e-Government.”

4) Park Geun-Hye Administration(2013-Present)

It is too early to evaluate e-Government based on the leadership of the President due

to the fact that the Park Geun-Hye administration had only been launched for short

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period of time since February of 2013. Currently, the Park Geun-Hye administration is

focusing on pushing two policies with high priority. The first is to establish the Ministry

of Science, ICT, and Future Planning (MSIP) in order to revitalize national economy

based on creative economy. The second is to assure citizens’ happiness through the

implementation of Government 3.0. Such implementation of Government 3.0 is based

on the foundation of the strong national e-Government system. Therefore, the success

and failure of the Park Geun-Hye administration depends on the utilization of e-

Government and e-governance.

2. Strategy & Initiatives

1) Kim Dae-Jung Administration(1998-2003)

The Kim Dae-Jung Administration (1998-2003) established the Special Committee of

e-Government (SCEG) on January 30, 2001 in order to promote interagency

collaboration in negotiating issues concerning the e-Government initiatives. The Special

Committee for e-Government reports to the president as an independent body and the

Special Committee for e-Government proposed a clear vision and strategy in May 2001 .

The Special Committee for e-Government had focused on three main goals for

establishing an e-Government to make the transition to a world-class nation (SCEG,

2003). First, they needed to create a leading government-wide service. In order to

achieve this strategic goal, the government must offer a citizen-centered government

service by creating a ‘Single Window e-Government’ that will allow citizens to file

online applications for government services, and to access other information services

through a simple and accessible format.

Second, they needed to create a market-based government that supports private

businesses. To achieve these strategic goals, government procurement and any other

Internet-based government service must be integrated into an online Single Window.

Third, they needed to create an effective, transparent and more democratic

government. When government electronic service delivery is available to the public in

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real-time, and interactive communication is enabled between government employees

and citizens over the Internet, the government will become more transparent and

democratic. To achieve this strategic goal, the finances of government agencies,

employee training, personnel management and other major internal processes should be

migrated to an integrated network. For the purpose of achieving these goals, the

Special Committee of e-Government had selected 11 strategic task areas as of May

2001 and had concentrated all capabilities on completing the basic framework for

realizing a fully functioning e-Government by the year 2002.

President Kim Dae-Jung held a meeting for the ‘Report on the Completion of e-

Government Infrastructure’ on November 13, 2002 with all ministers from each

participating ministries in attendance. President Kim announced that 11 major e-

Government initiatives were successfully executed and declared the opening of full-

scale e-Government services (SCEG, 2003). Therefore, the Special Committee for e-

Government was dissolved as of January 31, 2003.

The successful completion of the 11 e-Government initiatives were to bring many

changes to how the government operates and have a positive impact on citizens and

private business. The inefficient use of the budget and human resources that were

allocated to outdated procedures and functions have been reduced substantially.

Efficient government services were boost productivity of private businesses and lessen

the burden on civil servants who will no longer have to process redundant procedures.

The level of national competitiveness was increased in the long-term due to these e-

Government initiatives.

2) Roh Moo-Hyun Administration(2003-2008)

The Roh administration established the Presidential Committee on Government

Innovation and Decentralization (PCGID), its mission is to make the government of

Korea more open, transparent, and closer to the people. With full support of the

President, the PCGID has changed the way government works and transformed the

government into an open, transparent, accountable and participatory government for the

people. The PCGID consists of the main committee, and five executive committees:

24

Administrative Reform Committee, HR Management Reform Committee,

Decentralization Committee, Fiscal/Tax Reform Committee, and e-Government

Committee. The PCGID proposed the vision and strategy of e-Government of Roh,

Moo-Hyun administration in May 2003 (PCGID, 2003a).

Upon his inauguration in 2003 President Roh prepared policy measures to further

develop national informatization and e-government projects promoted by previous

administrations. To promote government innovation in a more comprehensive and

systematic way, the Presidential Committee on Government Innovation and

Decentralization (PCGID) was established to deal with such issues as e-government,

administrative reform, local decentralization and tax reform. In 2003, the ‘Roh

Administration e-Government Vision and Principles’ was announced, followed by the

‘e-Government Roadmap’. The e-Government Roadmap is composed of four areas of

innovation, 10 agendas and 31 projects .

The e-Government Roadmap projects present grand ambitions for achieving the

national vision and goals of Korea, which include: (1) the realizing of a participatory

democracy, (2) establishing balanced social development, (3) promoting the era of

Northeast Asia, and (4) achieving a per capita income of USD 20,000. In so doing, the

goals of e-government have been set; innovating service delivery, enhancing efficiency

and transparency and promoting democracy in administration, coinciding with the

vision of achieving the “World’s Best Open e-Government”(PCGID, 2003b).

3) Lee Myung-Bak Administration(2008-2013)

The Lee Myung-Bak Administration has actively pursued e-Government as a crucial

means to make its government more competitive, by leveraging the world’s best ICT

including broadband Internet. The Lee Myung-Bak Administration proposed a vision

and strategy of ICT Korea in September 2009 in order to secure potential for continuous

growth through ICT convergence and improvement as well as technological innovation

and job creation though combined growth of large and small and medium venture

businesses. The Lee Administration organized the Presidential Council for Future and

Vision and identified five future strategies for ICT Korea in 2009: (1) convergence (ten

25

strategic industries related to ICT convergence; (2) software (software as the source of

industrial competitiveness); (3) staple ICT (global supply base for staple ICT devices);

(4) broadcasting and communication (convenient and advanced broadcasting and

communication services); and (5) internet (a faster and safer internet).

Moreover, the Smart E-Government Plan was formulated in 2011 to convert the PC-

based e-Government into the mobile e-Government with the use of mobile devices such

as smart phones and tablet PC. In this plan the smart government was defined as “The

advanced government where the citizen freely use public services regardless of the type

of medium by combining the advanced information technology with government

services and which is being improved through the participation of and the

communication with citizens.”(MOPAS, 2011; NIA, 2011)

4) Park Geun-Hye Administration(2013-Present)

The Park Geun-Hye Administration reorganized some of the central government

structure and rebuilt ICT policy function in the Ministry of Science, ICT, and Future

Planning (MSIP) including the ICT Convergence Policy Bureau and the IT Strategy

Bureau in addition to telecommunications, broadcasting, and science policies. The Park

Administration embraces “Government 3.0” as a new policy rhetoric for government

innovation and e-Government policy framework.

The notion Government 3.0 goes beyond what the technological potentials of Web

3.0 promise. The Park Administration envisioned Government 3.0 for the purpose of

building a new age of innovation for promoting hopes and happiness of Koreans so that

the Park Administration set a national development vision under the title of “the pursuit

of the happiness of citizens”. Government 3.0 is a new paradigm for government

operation to promote active sharing of public information and removal of barriers

existing among government ministries for better collaboration.

The Korean Government refer to the US Obama Government’s Open Government

Initiatives. The Korean Government 3.0 drive seeks for two high level goals: providing

services customized for and tailored to various needs and demands, and creating new

jobs and rebooting development engines.

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3. The Korean government’s efforts to promote its e-Government Level.

The Korean government prepared UN “e-Gov Survey Corresponding Task Force

Team” which describes the Korean government’s efforts to promote its e-government

services inaccordance with the main points (6 initiatives) of the UN e-Government

Survey.

(Figure 3) 2014 UN 6 Initiatives and relations with websites operated by the

Republic of Korea’s e-Government

The government of the Republic of Korea provides all of its online civil services to

the general public in the common Korean language and, in certain cases, the English

language as well. All the websites also provide mobile websites with similar functions

and Android/iOS applications in versions identical to those provided on popular web

browsers, with the exception of certain functions that cannot be provided for security

reasons.

Common civil services, including those related to procurement, policy proposal, the

27

collection of public opinions, and the issuance of certificates, are processed in batches

by individual websites from the viewpoint of pan-governmental accessibility. All the

Korean and English-language websites are developed and operated in compliance with

the Korean Web Contents Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 based on the W3C Web

Accessibility Guidelines. They are also organized in a user-friendly manner pursuant to

the e-Government Standards and in compliance with the government guidelines on the

protection of personal information.

The excellence of Korean e-Government is recognized in international e-Government

awards as well as international e-Government indices. The seven initiatives of the five

Korean government institutions received the UN public service awards in 2011. Among

them are the two initiatives of the MOPAS, the agency in charge of the overall Korean

e-Government. The Information Network Village (INVIL) won the first place in the

category of fostering participation in public policy-making decisions. The 24-Hour e-

Services for the Public (Minwon24) won the second place in the category of improving

the delivery of public services.

(Figure 4) Reflecting the UN Initiative on the Republic of Korea e-Government

28

The government of the Republic of Korea empathizes with the roles of the e-

government as an enabler for collaborative governance, and the promotion strategy is in

sync with the Transformational Government in OASIS (Advancing open standards for

the information society). Actively using IT technology to maximize the efficiency and

effectiveness of government services with citizens and business at the center, the T-Gov.

strategy is triggering changes in actual work in government departments providing

differentiated services to each user. Actually, the Korean e-Government is offering one-

stop service to cater to the major individual needs of the people through various

channels.

IV. CONCLUSION: E-GOV FUTURE IN KOREA

The paradigm for government has shifted from control and management to efficiency,

transparency and participation through innovation, and the government’s function and

citizens’ role in society has changed. Taken together, the future direction for e-

Government in Korea needs to be considered and refined, based on government

innovation undertaken by the each administration. Because the Korea is not any more

the follow-up country but the first mover country(Chung, 2014).

The future e-Government in Korea is being developed towards seamless and

consolidated services, based on the e-Government projects that have been promoted so

far. In addition, a new master plan for e-democracy where citizens can actively

participate in policy-making and execution would also be necessary. The new e-

Government strategies will be taken into account from various perspectives, especially

in terms of strategy, e-Government services, citizens’ e-participation and strengthened

infrastructure for e-Government.

On the strategic side of e-Government, it first should continuously evolve and

develop, and its new value created. Service innovation and participation expansion,

being the vision and goals of the each administration, should evolve and develop with

29

trends over time, and administrative efficiency and increased transparency should be

maintained as to achieve substantial performance.

Second, e-Government and administrative innovation should be interconnected by a

framework. Aiming at providing all government information and services via the

Internet, electronic services should be developed in a wide range of areas including

education, employment, medical care, government procurement, business service, social

security, and tax; and a close relationship between e-Government strategies and

innovation is needed.

Third, a performance evaluation system and feedback system on e-Government

should be prepared. Goals should be clearly defined together with continuous

motivation, and it is very important to establish and carry out systems that can

maximize investment performance in connection with budget.

In order to strengthen citizen participation in e-Government, the expansion of online

participation is required first. By actively and comprehensively disclosing various forms

of information, which have been partially disclosed so far, all administrative

information on policy-making should be open electronically, and transparent

administrative services developed that can gain public understanding and validity. This

is an ‘Open Government’ via e-Government.

Second, it is required that citizen oriented e-Governance be established. By

establishing an electronic path through which citizens and citizen groups can participate

with responsibility and authority as partners on the same level as the government in

policy-making procedures, e-democracy should be achieved to actively guarantee

public participation. Also, a foundation should be built for e-governance, privacy

protection, expansion of online participation in all the policy-making procedures, and

improvement of electronic information welfare rights guaranteeing service quality.

In the end, the future e-Government will greatly enhance the reliability and

transparency of the government, based on more efficient administration and improved

service capacity for citizens. The people will be able to encounter an e-Government

through which they can use government services and even participate in policy-making

via diverse media anytime and anywhere.

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