Korea and Malaysia signed MOU on digital government

Korea and Malaysia set to work together for further developing digital government in the two countries. Chin Young, Minister of the Interior and Safety, and Dato Saifuddin Abdulla, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Malaysia, signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on digital government between Korea and Malaysia on November 28 at the Blue House.

The MOU signing ceremony was joined by President Moon Jae-in and Prime Minister Mahathir bin Mohamad of Malaysia who had the Korea-Malaysia summit.

The two countries have discussed bilateral cooperation for sharing experiences and knowledge in promoting digital government since 2016, and the MOU was signed on the occasion of Prime Minister Mohamad’s visit to Korea. Under the MOU, the Korean and Malaysian governments will carry out a wide range of cooperation activities including exchanging personnel and sharing experiences and technologies.

In particular, the third-party agencies, other than the two governments, will be allowed to participate in joint projects or programs, which will help achieve more tangible outcomes of cooperation. Believing that this type of MOU will further enhance collaboration, MOIS will adopt the third party cooperation in future MOUs with other countries.

Malaysia ranked 48th in e-government development index and 32nd in e-participation index in the UN e-Government Survey 2018. Korea ranked the 3rd in e-government development index and 1st in e-participation index in the same survey.

Digital government cooperation between Korea and Malaysia began with Korea’s export of postal logistics management system, worth of USD 3.3 million, to Malaysia’s Postal Service. Korea also exported various e-government services and systems including transport system consulting (2014, USD 8.2 million), bus system establishment (2016, USD 8.09 million), and e-trading system (2017, USD 617,000).

And, 21 Malaysian government officials visited Korea to attend invitational training for capacity-building on digital government from 2016 to 2018.
Minister Chin Young noted that “Cooperation in digital government with Malaysia is an effective way to achieve the government’s New Southern Policy.” “I will do my best to strengthen our bilateral relations and promote economic development by closely working together with Malaysia,” he added.