Seoul City, First Local Government to Fully Disclose Mayor and Executive Key Schedules

Anyone Can Check at Seoul Information Communication Plaza

Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon is greeting attendees by bumping elbows at the Seoul Metropolitan Government-Jachigu Joint Comprehensive Countermeasures Meeting for the Novel Coronavirus held at Seoul City Hall on January 29. Photo by Kim Hyun-min kimhyun81@

[Asia Economy Reporter Jo In-kyung] Where are the Mayor of Seoul and key Seoul city officials right now, and what are they doing?

The Seoul Metropolitan Government announced that it will disclose the official schedules of a total of 34 key officials, including Mayor Park Won-soon, the Deputy Mayor, and heads of departments leading policy in various fields, starting from the 24th through the Seoul Information Communication Plaza website(http://opengov.seoul.go.kr).

The city explained that by disclosing the schedules of key officials, citizens will be able to look into the progress of various policies closely related to them, such as welfare, economy, safety, housing, and culture.

The disclosed schedule information will be provided in an easy-to-understand manner for citizens, including time, official titles, and location information. The principle is to disclose major work-related schedules such as events, meetings, and field visits. However, schedules subject to non-disclosure under the Information Disclosure Act, such as those related to security and diplomacy, decision-making processes, or personal schedules unrelated to work, may be excluded from disclosure.

In the schedule disclosure section within the Seoul Information Communication Plaza, citizens can view schedules from three months in the past to five days in the future. Officials without schedules will not be displayed, and schedules are subject to change depending on circumstances.

The disclosure of schedules for officials at the director level and above is a system first implemented nationwide by the Seoul Metropolitan Government. It is expected to open an administrative governance that communicates and cooperates with citizens by sharing the schedules of key officials leading Seoul city administration with internal staff and citizens.

Kim Tae-gyun, Director of Administration at Seoul City, said, "We will transparently disclose the work schedules of officials at the director level and above to strengthen administrative responsibility and continuously strive to enhance citizens' right to know."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.