Serbian Deputy Prime Minister Signed an MOU for e-Government Cooperation with Korea

Having ranked first in the UN E-Government Survey for three consecutive terms, Korea’s e-government now expands its influence to Eastern Europe as Korea and Serbia made an arrangement to work together for the development of digital government.

Minister Hong, Yun-sik of the Interior of the Republic of Korea and Deputy Prime Minister Kori Udovicki of the Republic of Serbia met in Seoul on March 16 and signed a memorandum of understanding for their cooperation in the field of e-government.

Setting out its master plan for e-government development, Serbia has been very active in requesting Korea to support Serbia’s e-government initiative and work closely together. As a result, Serbian Deputy Prime Minister Udovicki herself signed the memorandum of understanding on the occasion of her visit to Korea.

Serbia has worked on its e-government development strategy as part of its efforts to reform its economic structure and reduce the size of the public sector. In 2016, in particular, mobile government is in focus in Serbia.

The signing of the memorandum of understanding paves the way for a wide range of joint projects between the Korean Ministry of the Interior and the Serbian Ministry of Public Administration and Local Self-Government, ranging from personnel exchange programme to sharing of best practices and capacity building projects for the purpose of helping establish and run e-government successfully in Serbia.

Deputy Prime Minister Udovicki is another high-ranking government official from Serbia who visited Korea after the Serbian Prime Minister’s visit to Seoul in 2010, which shows the clear evidence of Serbia’s willingness to work with Korea, especially in the area of e-government.

Deputy Prime Minister Udovicki commented that e-government in Serbia is in its beginning stage, and she hoped to work with Korea in a comprehensive manner as Korea is much experienced and has made large progress in the field of e-government.

The memorandum of understanding with Serbia is especially significant in that Korea initiated its e-government cooperation with Eastern Europe in addition to its existing partners in Southeast Asia, Central Asia, and Latin America.

Situated where West meets East, Serbia has geopolitical importance and boasts its talented people and high level of trade liberalization; therefore, it has large untapped potential for trade and investment with Korea.

The Ministry of the Interior will keep up the momentum of Korea-Serbia cooperation in ICT as it is planning to attend the ICT Cooperation Workshop between Korea and the Black Sea Economic Cooperation to be held this October.

Minister Hong of the Interior stated, “Lately, more and more Eastern European countries, including Poland, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic, have made a request to Korea for cooperation in e-government.” He then continued, “This year will mark an importance year for Korea’s e-government to expand the strategic cooperation network with Eastern Europe.”