The Korean government established the e-government cooperation center in Uzbekistan, which will help strengthen cooperation in public administration and export Korea’s e-government systems and services.

As Korea operated the cooperation center in Uzbekistan from 2013 to 2015, the government expects that the second cooperation center in Uzbekistan will serve as a hub to spread Korea’s e-government.

On January 30 in Tashkent, Vice Minister of the Interior and Safety Yoon Jong-in and Director of National Agency for Project Management of Uzbekistan Dmitry Romanovich Lee held the opening ceremony of the ‘Korea-Uzbekistan e-Government and Digital Economy Cooperation Center.’

In April last year, President Moon Jae-in and Uzbek President Shavkat Miromonovic Mirziyoyev agreed to foster cooperation in public administration in their summit, and the cooperation center opened as a result of their agreement.

The cooperation center will be operated for three years from 2020 to 2022, reflecting Uzbekistan’s strong request. Six staff from both countries (three from each) will work at center, which will be supervised by Korea’s Ministry of the Interior and Safety (MOIS) and Uzbekistan’s National Agency for Project Management with the budget of USD 4 million (USD 2 million from each).

The center will provide support in many areas such as conducting joint projects including e-government consulting and system establishment, holding invitational and on-site training programs for capacity building, and assisting Korea’s e-government related companies to enter into the overseas market.

MOIS explained that the volume of joint project costs and the number of staff at the center are more than double than those of other cooperation centers in other countries. Accordingly, the center is expected to conduct substantial cooperation projects such as the establishment of pilot system, moving beyond general cooperation in sharing Korea’s e-government experiences and technologies.

MOIS will support the Korea-Uzbekistan e-government cooperation center to make the center a hub for exporting Korean-type e-government to countries around the world. In addition, the ministry plans to establish e-government cooperation centers by continent such as Serbia in Europe, Tunisia in Africa and Paraguay in Latin America by the end of this year, so that the centers can serve as a bridgehead for Korean companies to make inroads into the overseas market.

Vice Minister Yoon Jong-in commented that “The e-government cooperation center will contribute to advancing Uzbekistan’s e-government by sharing Korea’s knowhow, technologies and services in e-government.” “As the e-government cooperation center is one of the representative models of official development assistance, we plan to further expand the project,” he added.