Policy Ideas for Advancing an "Open Government," Created Together with Civil Society

Ministry of the Interior and Safety Launches Task Force for the 5th Open Government National Action Plan

[Asia Economy Reporter Jo In-kyung] The Ministry of the Interior and Safety announced that it formed a task force (TF) consisting of both public and private sectors to establish the '5th Open Government National Action Plan' and held its inauguration ceremony and first meeting on the 19th.

The Open Government National Action Plan is a plan established and implemented every two years by member country governments and civil society of the international consortium 'Open Government Partnership (OGP)' to realize an open government by enhancing government transparency, eradicating corruption, and activating citizen participation. It is a multilateral consortium created in 2011 following a speech by former U.S. President Barack Obama at the United Nations General Assembly in 2010, and as of February this year, 78 countries worldwide have joined.

The public-private consultative body, the 'Republic of Korea Open Government Forum,' collected a total of 1,130 policy ideas by soliciting government and public proposals in March to establish the 5th Open Government Plan and reviewing existing public proposals.

The proposals include various ideas such as solving social problems using public data, like how civil society created a COVID-19 mask app using public data, transparently disclosing information related to public safety, and utilizing digital technologies suited for the untact (contactless) era.

The TF will compress these proposals to about 150, then review them by four subcommittees: digital openness, anti-corruption, fiscal transparency, and participation/social value, and after consultations with relevant ministries and civil society organizations, will finally select around 10 open government tasks.

The Ministry of the Interior and Safety, the OGP lead ministry, plans to establish a challenging plan that serves as a model for the international community and share it globally, as Korea will begin its term as chair country representing the 78 OGP member countries starting this October.

The draft action plan will be released in September, and after collecting public opinions on it, the final version will be confirmed and submitted to the OGP.

Yoon Jong-in, Vice Minister of the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, said, "While the open government so far has focused on communication between the government and civil society, from now on, co-creation involving both public and private sectors in the policy and service production process must be realized," adding, "We will cooperate with civil society from the establishment of the 5th National Action Plan through its implementation and evaluation process."

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