Ministers and experts on e-Government from five leading digital governments, Korea, the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Estonia, and Israel, will gather together in Korea to discuss the future of e-Government and seek ways to narrow the digital gaps among governments.

The Ministry of the Interior will host the third Digital-5 Summit under the theme of 'Leading Digital Innovation' on November 10-11 at Westin Chosun Hotel, Busan.

Digital-5 Ministerial Summit, a consultative platform for digital government leaders, was launched by the initiative of two leading digital governments, the United Kingdom and Korea. The first D-5 meeting took place in London, United Kingdom in 2014, and the second meeting was held in Tallinn, Estonia in 2015.

Thus far, D-5 summit has served as an annual meeting among five members to share best practices on e-Government and discuss latest issues. Korea, as the chair of this year's event, has proposed to advance D-5 into a global network to lead e-governments worldwide and promote mankind's sustainable development, presenting a vision for D-5 Ministerial Summit to member states.

As a result, ministers of the D-5 countries will adopt the Busan Declaration of Digital-5 Governments which embraces the future of D-5, expansion of D-5 and outcomes of D-5 at the third summit.

This year's summit will be joined by digital government leaders from around the worlds, including Minister of the Interior of the Republic of Korea, Parliamentary Secretary for the Cabinet Office of Her Majesty's Government of the United Kingdom, Minister of Internal Affairs of New Zealand, Deputy Minister for Diplomacy and Foreign Policy of the Prime Minister's Office of Israel, and CIO of Economic Affairs and Communications of Estonia, as well as 60 experts on digital government from home and abroad.

On November 10, D-5 Ministerial Roundtable, D-5 Working-level Meeting for Director Generals and D-5 Expert Session will be held.


At the Expert Session, Korean experts including Ahn Mun-seok, Chairman of e-Government Steering Committee, Professor Lee Jeong-woo and Professor Lim Jong-in will participate to have an in-depth discussion of user friendliness, ways to recruit excellent talents on informatization within governments, next-generation authentication system and digital credibility.

D-5 selected five top-priority agenda items that governments need to implement for advancing digital government and has conducted research for the past eight months. In January 2017, the findings of research will be published after collecting opinions of experts at D-5 summit.

Director General Lee In-jae for e-Government at the Ministry of the Interior commented, "Publication of D-5 brochure is the first achievement of D-5 to minimize trials and errors of latecomers in digital government including developing countries as well as to fuel global digital development."

At the Working-level Meeting for Director Generals, Chief Information Officers (CIOs) from governments will put their heads together to select the agenda for 2017 and carry out a joint research project next year.

Korea set 'Exemplary e-Government model' as the agenda for 2016 and conducted research this year. The Korean government will suggest 'Future intelligent government' or 'Striking a balance between de-identification of personal information and digital trust' as the next year's agenda.

And, at the D-5 Ministerial Meeting, ministers will discuss future directions including expanding and redefining roles of D-5. D-5 will be expanded to D-20 in the future, starting from the joining of Denmark as a new member, and share their experiences on digital government with developing governments, thereby bridging the digital gaps among countries.

On November 11, all delegations will attend the D-5 General Assembly to adopt the D-5 Busan Declaration that proposes a future vision for D-5. At the meeting, CIOs from the participating countries will give presentations on digital strategies. The Korean government will share its strategies for national data management system and safe use of personal information, under the theme of 'paradigm shift towards data-driven government' by maximizing and standardizing data utilization through data mapping.

D-5 ministers will unanimously adopt and sign the Busan Declaration that embraces a vision and future direction of D-5. Key contents of the declaration are as follows.

<Key Takeaways from Busan Declaration >
○ (Future of the D5) Share best practices and innovative digital government policies and contribute to digitalization of the international community by working towards the nine principles of the D5 Charter and bridging the digital gaps among countries
○ (Expansion of the D5) Open to expansion to include additional countries that have a track record of excellence in digital government and are committed to meeting the D5 principles
○ (D5 and Related Stakeholders) Work with relevant stakeholders, including international organizations, the private sector, academia and civil society to advance global digital government
○ (Nine Principles of the D5 Charter) Principles of the Charter should be reviewed annually as digital government evolves and updated as new challenges and opportunities arise
※ Nine principles of the D5 Charter: User needs, Open standards, Open source, Open markets, Open government, Connectivity, Teach children to code, Assisted digital, Commitment to share and learn
○ (Outcomes of the D5) Share code and solutions in the field of digital government and collaborate on research, analysis and projects and publish findings annually to share publicly with non D-5 countries

Meanwhile, D-5 delegations will take a look around e-Government Reform Pavilion at the Government 3.0 Fair at the BEXCO convention center on the 10th to witness firsthand Korea's government reforms including e-Government.

At Session Ⅱ of Government 3.0 Global Forum, which will be joined by ministers from developing countries, D-5 leaders will give presentations on each government's future vision and policies of digital government, under the theme of 'From government-led to citizen-oriented administrative service,' and present a guideline for developing e-Government in developing countries.

Minister of the Interior Hong Yun-sik said, "The importance of personal information protection and cyber ethics is increasing as cutting-edge ICT technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), the Internet of Things (IoT) and big data are rapidly evolving in the era of industry 4.0."

"This year's summit will be a watershed to promote Korea's advanced digital government system and policy as well as to enhance the national prestige in the international community," Minister Hong added.