The United Nations looks to the Republic of Korea for a development model of public administration, in the areas from government innovation to rural development to citizen security, for Asia and beyond to Africa and Latin America.

Minister Hong Yun-sik of the Interior of the Republic of Korea and UN Under-Secretary-General Wu Hongbo signed an agreement at the New York-based United Nations Headquarters on June 2 to renew and expand the mission and activities of the United Nations Project Office on Governance (UNPOG).

Part of UN family, UNPOG was established jointly by the Ministry of the Interior and the United Nations in 2006 to contribute to achieving the Millennium Development Goals. It has run governance capacity building programmes for over 200 UN member states and successfully held a number of international events such as the Global E-Government Forum.

The newly signed agreement will allow UNPOG to broaden its areas of work from e-government to government innovation, rural development, citizen security, and many more areas of public administration, also expanding its regions of activities from Asia-Pacific to Central Asia, Africa, and Latin America.

Before the signing of the agreement, Minister Hong had a meeting with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and then with Under-Secretary-General Wu to show the willingness of the Korean government to contribute to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals and discuss ways of contribution in the years to come.

The renewal of UNPOG is especially significant because it demonstrates Korea’s determination to carry out its responsibilities in the international community as the country that produced a UN Secretary-General and chairs the UN Economic and Social Council.

Working with the United Nations to share Korea’s unique development experiences and lessons learned to date, the Korean government will keep up its dedication to eradicating global poverty, growing the world’s economy, bringing peace to the world, and building sustainable institutions.

Minister Hong commented, “I expect that UNPOG would serve as the global hub for good governance by sharing with the international community Korea’s best practices in public administration.” He then continued, “The activities of UNPOG will also raise the international status of Korea and help Korea’s e-government form partnership with more countries around the world.”