Electronic Government

Electronic Government (전자정부/電子政府), or e-Government, is digital interactions between a government and citizens (G2C), government and businesses (G2B), government and employees (G2E), and also between government and government agencies (G2G). This digital interaction consists of governance, information and communications technology (ICT), business process re-engineering (BPR), and e-citizen at all levels of government (city, state/province, national, and international).

e-Government, defined as "the employment of the Internet and the world-wide-web (WWW) for delivering government information and services to the citizens", refers to "the utilization of ICTs, and other Internet-based telecommunication technologies to improve and enhance on the efficiency and effectiveness of service delivery in the public sector."

E-Government uses aggressively technologies to facilitate the operation of government and the disbursement of government information and services, and deals heavily with Internet applications to conduct government works. E-Government includes the use of electronics in a large scale, as well as surveillance systems, tracking systems such as RFID tags, and even the use of television to provide government-related information and services to the citizens. See 2012 e-Government Seoul Communique.

Key words
e-Government, information (and communications) technology, digitalization, export

National Information Strategy
The Framework Act on the Promotion of National Information System (정보화촉진기본법) called for the establishment of the Committee to Promote the National Information System (정보화추진위원회) under Prime Minister.

The Committee set sail on June 11, 1996, and achieved a number of large-scale projects on national information systems. The government under President Kim Dae-Jung (1998-2003) adopted the nation-wide e-Government architecture (EA), built up nation-wide high-speed broadband networks, completed necessary standardization of ICTs, and set up the Chief Information Officer (CIO, 정보화책임관) in each administrative office, among others. With the change of the name of the Act, the Committee was upgraded to the President's Council on National ICT Strategy (정보화전략위원회) in November 2009.

Statutory ground
In 2001, the Government legislated the Act to Promote the Digitalization of Administrative Work, etc. for the Upgraded E-Government (전자정부 구현을 위한 행정업무 등의 전자화 촉진에 관한 법률, Act No.6439) in March 2001, and put it into force as from July 1, 2001. The main points of the Act were: Later in 2010, the E-Government Act (전자정부법) was wholly amended. The main points of the amendment are:
 * To digitalize the administrative work process based on information technologies (ITs) not only in the Administrative, but also the National Assembly and the Judiciary for the enhancement of administrative productivity and democracy (Art. 2);
 * To set up the principles necessary to establish and operate e-Government in designing the administrative work process for the convenience of citizens, and in innovating such work process as a whole adaptive to electronic processing (Arts. 6-15);
 * To make and manage administrative documents in a digital form, and to prepare for the document format in a digital one (Art. 16);
 * To use an electronic official seal on electronic government documents, and a digital signature subject to the Digital Signature Act in the electronic interactions of government offices, and to delegate the authentication of such electronic official seals to the head of central government offices (Art. 20);
 * To allow the head of administrative offices to adopt business process re-engineering (BPR) to the existing organization and work process, and to amend laws and regulations, and other systems adaptive to such BPR (Art. 24);
 * To receive opinions of the interested parties via the information and communication networks with respect to the BPR-based administrative and legislative process (Art. 28);
 * To allow the head of administrative offices to adopt office work and education systems via the information and communication networks, and to urge the head of central government offices to survey regularly the ICT skills of public servants and reflect the survey results on the education and training programs (Arts. 30-32);
 * To permit the replacement of paper-based documents required by the relevant law, by the electronic message under this Act (Art. 33);
 * To allow applicant-citizens to process their own works instead of visiting the administrative offices, and to prepare for the Internet-based window for civil petitions (Art. 34);
 * To take measures necessary to provide the administrative information related with civil petitions and/or citizens' living via the Internet (Art. 37);
 * To allow the administrative offices to provide their services or grants to citizens via the information and communication networks (Art. 39);
 * To implement the paper reduction plan by means of the reform of decision-making process, digitalization, simplification of administrative processes, and co-sharing of administrative information, etc. (Arts. 40-42);
 * To set up the paper reduction committee under the head of central government offices so as to conduct and deliberate the paper reduction plans (Art. 44); and
 * To allow more than two local autonomous entities to establish a local government association which conducts jointly the e-Government projects (Art. 51).
 * To expand and promote e-Government services from the civil petitions to welfare, security and business promotion on a ubiquitous basis (Arts. 7-24);
 * To facilitate the co-sharing of administrative information possessed by each administrative office in the aftermath of governmental reorganization in February 2008, insofar as personal information is released subject to prior consent of data subjects (Arts. 36-44);
 * To consolidate the e-Government infrastructure based upon the information technology architecture (Arts. 45-63); and
 * To take appropriate and necessary measures to fulfil the above-mentioned e-Government projects on a continual basis (Arts. 64-75).

Examples of e-Government
E-Government should enable anyone visiting a city website to communicate and interact with city employees via the Internet with graphical user interfaces (GUI), instant-messaging (IM), audio/video presentations, and in any way more sophisticated than a simple email letter to the address provided at the site” and “the use of technology to enhance the access to and delivery of government services to benefit citizens, business partners and employees”.

The focus should be on:
 * The use of ICTs, and particularly the Internet, as a tool to achieve better government.
 * The use of ICTs in all facets of the operations of a government organization.
 * The continuous optimization of service delivery, constituency participation and governance by transforming internal and external relationships through technology, the Internet and new media.

While e-Government has traditionally been understood as being centered around the operations of government, e-Governance is understood to extend the scope by including citizen engagement and participation in governance. As such, following in line with the OECD definition of e-Government, e-Governance can be defined as the use of ICTs as a tool to achieve better governance.

Delivery models and activities of e-Government
The primary delivery models of e-Government can be divided into: In this model, the G2C model apply the strategy of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) with business concept. By managing their customer (citizen) relationship, the business (government) can provide the needed products and services fulfill the needs from customer (citizen). In United States, the NPR (National Partnership for Reinventing Government) has been implemented from 1993.
 * Government-to-Citizen or Government-to-Consumer (G2C)
 * Government-to-Business (G2B): See electronic procurement.
 * Government-to-Government (G2G)
 * Government-to-Employees (G2E)

Within each of these interaction domains, four kinds of activities take place: A. Pushing information over the Internet, e.g.: regulatory services, general holidays, public hearing schedules, issue briefs, notifications, etc. B. Two-way communications between the agency and the citizen, a business, or another government agency. In this model, users can engage in dialogue with agencies and post problems, comments, or requests to the agency. C. Conducting transactions, e.g.: lodging tax returns, applying for services and grants. D. Governance, e.g.: To enable the citizen transition from passive information access to active citizen participation by:
 * 1) Informing the citizen
 * 2) Representing the citizen
 * 3) Encouraging the citizen to vote
 * 4) Consulting the citizen
 * 5) Involving the citizen

Sharing e-Government Systems with Foreign Countries
The United Nations Public Administration Network (UNPAN) has regularly released the result of Global E-Government Survey. The UN E-Government Survey 2012 said that many have put in place e-government initiatives and ICTs applications for the people to further enhance public sector efficiencies and streamline governance systems to support sustainable development.

Against this backdrop, bearing in mind the e-Government system as a next generation export item as well as an effective tool for economic cooperation, the Ministry of Security and Public Administration (MOSPA) has granted the intellectual property rights for the e-Government system to export companies, provided assistance for development of e-Government frameworks and pushes for documenting the system. In addition, MOSPA has entered into Memoranda of Understanding (MOUs) with Brunei, Bulgaria, Vietnam, and other countries to do business together. MOSPA also provided hundreds of officials from foreign countries with the country’s know-how on establishment of an e-Government and related experiences, linking the e-Government export with the Official Development Assistance (ODA) project.

In 2011 alone, the Korean government succeeded to export its e-Government systems up to 235 million dollars, 58 percent increase over the previous year, including:
 * Data Center of Viet Namese government: US$100 million;
 * Disaster Control Information System of Mozambique: US$25 million;
 * Immigration Control System of Dominican Republic: US$25 millioon;
 * Electronic Customs Clearance Single Windows of Ecuador: US$15.8 million;
 * Wireless Communication System for Indonesian Police: US$40 million;
 * Security Consulting for the Mexican government: US$2 million; and
 * Tax Revenue Information System of Laos: US$28 million financed by the Economic Development and Cooperation Fund (EDCF).