On March 21, the Ministry of the Interior of the Republic of Korea (Minister Hong Yun-sik) held the 1st Korea-France Joint Seminar on e-Government with the French delegation, composed of H.E. Jean-Vincent Plac?, Minister for Government Reform and Simplification, as well as experts on government reform and e-Government.

Minister Plac?, who is in charge of public sector reform and digital strategies of France, attended the joint seminar with 10 delegates. The seminar was a follow-up to the Letter of Intent (LOI) for Cooperation signed by Minister Hong Yun-sik and his French counterpart at Government 3.0 Fair last year. Minister Jean-Vincent Plac? has shown a great interest in Korea’s e-Government and public sector reform in numerous occasions including the 7th Asian Leadership Conference held in May 2016 in Seoul.

During the seminar, the two countries shared their visions for e-Government and held discussions on three themes such as Open Data and Open Government, Digital Identity and Multi-channel Strategies for Public Service.

Chung Yoon Kee, Director General of e-Government Bureau, first introduced the future vision of Korea’s e-Government including Intelligent Government* and Smart Nation** while Xavier Albouy, Director General of e-Government Bureau of France, explained the French government’s e-Government policies titled “Government as a Platform (Etat Plateforme).” They shared future directions for e-Government in the two countries and exchanged ideas to realize digital government in the future.

* Intelligent Government: a smart government backed by digital data and artificial intelligence (AI), which can communicate with the public and find the most suitable policy solutions, like a personal assistant

** Smart Nation: a nation that can provide universal government services to the public at anytime and anywhere

In the three discussion sessions, experts of the two countries gave presentations on the status of implementing government reform and e-Government policies by field and had in-depth discussions on how to take a leap forward in digital strategies.
Ranked 10th in UN e-Government Survey in 2016, France is one of the leading countries in e-Government in the world. In September 2016, it enacted the Digital Republic to lay a legal basis for digital government strategies such as promoting the use of open data, coming up with measures to protect personal information and enhancing access to digital technologies.

The Ministry of the Interior has also strived to improve legal and institutional framework regarding the opening and utilization of government-held data such as an integrated government-wide authentication system called “Digital One-pass.”

Minister Hong Yun-sik stated, “Fostering collaboration with a global leader in e-Government will add momentum to further develop Korea’s digital government strategies. “I hope Korea and France share know-how and expertise on government reform and e-Government and learn from each other to play a leading role in advancing global e-Government,” he added.