Minister Jeon Hae-cheol Emphasizes 'Solidarity' and 'Cooperation' at MENA·OECD Ministerial Meetings

Attended Ministerial Video Conference and Delivered Keynote Speech

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Cheol-young] Jeon Hae-cheol, Minister of the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, attended the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) - Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) ministerial meeting held online on the 31st and delivered a keynote speech via video.

At this ministerial meeting held for the first time in five years, the Tunisian government and the OECD Secretariat highly evaluated Korea's digital government and K-quarantine, inviting Minister Jeon as a speaker. The meeting was held under the theme of "Vision for Recovery of Daily Life in the MENA Region: Digital Governance for More Open, Accessible, and Efficient Public Services."

Attendees included ministers from the MENA region such as the Tunisian Minister of Public Services and the Egyptian Minister of Information and Communications Technology, high-ranking officials from OECD member countries including the Italian Minister of Public Administration, and the OECD Secretariat.

MENA-OECD is a cooperation program started by the OECD Secretariat in 2005 to reform public governance and strengthen competitiveness in the Middle East and North Africa region. Korea serves as a co-chair country of the "Open Innovation Government" division.

The Ministry of the Interior and Safety has participated annually in the director-level annual meetings to share best practices in digital government, government innovation, and citizen participation. In particular, major countries in the MENA region such as Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Egypt, and Morocco are promoting "digital transformation" as a government strategy, indicating many new areas of cooperation such as intelligent government, digital innovation, and public data in the future. Meaningful cooperation between Korea and MENA countries also took place during the COVID-19 response last year.

The UAE was the first in the world to import Korean diagnostic kits, and countries like Saudi Arabia benchmarked K-quarantine models such as drive-through testing, broadly sharing quarantine supplies and experiences.

In his keynote speech at the meeting, Minister Jeon emphasized that "the shortcut to turning unprecedented crises into opportunities in the new normal environment lies in 'solidarity' and 'cooperation,'" adding, "We will continue the meaningful cooperation with MENA countries shown during the COVID-19 crisis response into cooperation for more open, more accessible, and more efficient public service innovation after COVID-19."

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