Government and Citizens Expand 'Policy Participation Opportunities' with 4 Major Areas and 7 Tasks 추진

All Administrative Agencies Begin Full-Scale 'Citizen Participation Level Diagnosis'... Self-Assessment of Citizen Participation Activation Level
Petition Procedures Revised Ahead of Revised Petition Act Implementation
Policy Participation Strengthened Through Online and Offline Integration

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Cheol-young] From now on, all administrative agencies will conduct a ‘National Participation Level Diagnosis’ and expand opportunities for policy participation linking online and offline.

On the 25th, the Ministry of the Interior and Safety announced that it has established the '2021 National Participation Activation Promotion Plan,' which contains the direction for promoting participatory policies of central government ministries and local governments. This promotion plan includes four major areas and seven key tasks: strengthening the participation base, diversifying participation, improving participation accessibility, and realizing participation in policy, with the vision of “an open government where participation becomes daily life and proposals become policies.”

First, all administrative agencies will officially conduct the ‘National Participation Level Diagnosis,’ which allows them to self-assess the level of activation of public participation, including the policy participation base and procedures, and improve participatory policies. Last year, the Ministry of the Interior and Safety conducted a pilot ‘National Participation Level Diagnosis’ targeting metropolitan local governments, and from this year, it plans to supplement the indicators considering situations where face-to-face participation is restricted.

With the revised Petition Act to be fully implemented from the end of this year, the petition procedure will be organized to enable the substantial exercise of the constitutional right to petition. The Ministry of the Interior and Safety plans to complete the enactment of subordinate laws such as the enforcement decree of the Petition Act within this year to complete the petition reception procedure and stipulate matters related to the establishment and operation of the Petition Review Committee for the investigation and deliberation of petitions. In 2022, an online petition system will be established to allow citizens to easily submit petitions online in their daily lives.

In response to the COVID-19 era, policy participation linking online and offline will be further strengthened. By combining the advantages of online and offline, a ‘hybrid online-offline forum operation model’ will be prepared where online and offline participants can discuss together, and it will be expanded to central administrative agencies and local governments. A ‘community function’ will be newly established on Gwanghwamun 1st Street where policy participation groups of each agency can operate online.

The role of the online national participation integrated platform ‘Gwanghwamun 1st Street’ as an integrated window for government-wide national participation will also be strengthened. Through the ‘Pre-notification of Participatory Policies’ on Gwanghwamun 1st Street, it will be improved so that various participation policy schedules and participation results of administrative agencies can be checked at once through Gwanghwamun 1st Street. Subsequently, related regulations will be revised so that all proposals except personal information are disclosed, and proposals received through each agency’s own platform will be linked and integrated for viewing on ‘Gwanghwamun 1st Street.’

A procedure will also be established where proposers, responsible public officials, related experts, and the general public come together to develop policies. Previously, related regulations required deciding whether to adopt a proposal within one month, but these will be revised to allow a maturation and public discussion process within six months for proposals with the potential to develop into policies.

In addition, when a policy officer supplements and adopts a proposal, the ‘Collaborative Proposal’ system, which rewards both the proposer and the adopter, will be applied first to public official proposals to expand the reflection of proposals in policies.

The Ministry of the Interior and Safety plans to notify central and local governments of this plan to spread the activation of national participation government-wide and continuously manage the promotion status. Han Chang-seop, Director of the Government Innovation Organization Office, said, “We expect that citizens’ policy participation will become a daily routine crossing online and offline,” and added, “We will actively support so that citizens’ proposals do not remain mere proposals but are realized as policies that can improve citizens’ lives and local communities.”

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