'2020 Government Innovation Merit Award' Ceremony, 41 Meritorious Individuals and 9 Meritorious Organizations Selected

Three Selected for the Order of Civil Merit: Moon Myung-jae, Professor at Yonsei University; Kang Je-sang, Professor at Kyung Hee University; Jo Joo-hyun, Director of Small Business Policy at the Ministry of SMEs and Startups

Moon Myung-jae, Professor at Yonsei University

Moon Byung-kyo, former director of the Jeonnam Village Community Building Support Center

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Cheol-young] The Ministry of the Interior and Safety announced on the 27th that it will hold the '2020 Government Innovation Merit Awards Ceremony' on the 28th at the Seoul Open Communication Forum space in the annex of the Government Seoul Office.

To prevent the spread of COVID-19, the event will be simplified and held for 8 selected recipients by award grade out of the total 50 awards (41 individuals, 9 organizations) (1 Order of Merit, 3 Plaques of Appreciation, 4 Presidential Citations).

This Government Innovation Merit Award selected 41 individuals (3 Orders of Merit, 6 Plaques of Appreciation, 12 Presidential Citations, 20 Prime Minister’s Citations) who played an important role in producing government innovation achievements through active policy participation or consultation, and 9 organizations (2 Presidential Citations, 7 Prime Minister’s Citations) that created excellent innovative results such as the introduction of mobile driver’s license verification service and activation of administrative information sharing.

In particular, 3 individuals (1 Plaque of Appreciation, 2 Prime Minister’s Citations) who contributed to innovative achievements closely related to citizens’ lives were selected as awardees through public recommendation, increasing public participation in the government award nomination process.

The recipients of the Order of Civil Merit, Red Stripes (Hongjo Geunjeong Medal) are Professor Moon Myung-jae of Yonsei University, Professor Kang Je-sang of Kyung Hee University, and Cho Ju-hyun, Director of the Small Business Policy Office at the Ministry of SMEs and Startups.

Professor Moon Myung-jae greatly contributed to promoting government innovation through continuous research on government quality, quality of life, future government innovation cases, and activities as a government innovation advisory committee member. Professor Kang Je-sang contributed to improving government policies and setting policy directions through continuous academic and committee activities related to government innovation, and played a connecting role between citizens and government to expand practical public participation in the policy process. In addition, Director Cho Ju-hyun contributed to strengthening the competitiveness of small business owners and the innovative leap of SMEs and ventures for 25 years, and was recognized for policy-making of vision and strategies to enhance the competitiveness of manufacturing SMEs.

Six individuals were selected for the Plaque of Appreciation. Two people, including Moon Byung-kyo, former head of the Jeonnam Village Community Support Center, who contributed to realizing the government's social values that citizens can feel and adopting people- and field-centered government innovation tasks, were awarded the Citizen’s Plaque of Appreciation. Four others, including Jin Jeong-nam, a supervisor at Chungcheongnam-do Office of Education who established a system to predict and respond to types of school violence in advance through real-time big data analysis, and Hong Seung-tae, an officer at the Korea Forest Service who greatly contributed to improving the work environment in forest sites by simplifying equipment and improving work efficiency using smart technology, were awarded the Plaque of Merit.

Twelve people, including Lee Gyu-hwan and Kwon Ji-yeon, who proposed an order platform incorporating ICT technology and contributed to solving digital social problems for the elderly, were selected as recipients of the Presidential Citation. Twenty people, including Jin Jeong-hee, Fire Captain at the National Fire Agency, who contributed to eliminating safety blind spots for citizens through data analysis and information sharing in accident-prone areas, were selected as recipients of the Prime Minister’s Citation.

As for organizations awarded the Presidential Citation, two organizations including the National Pension Service, which improved the system to allow new enrollment in the four major social insurances with a single submission of supporting documents, were selected. Seven organizations, including the Korea Transportation Safety Authority, which linked a ‘non-face-to-face discount qualification verification service’ to vehicle inspections to reduce the inconvenience of submitting required documents for service users, were selected for the Prime Minister’s Citation.

Jeon Hae-cheol, Minister of the Interior and Safety, said, “Just as great things are made by connecting small things, government innovation is also achieved by the practice of changing small things around us,” and added, “I thank all the awardees who participated in government innovation where the people are the owners, and I hope you will continue to strive for innovation in the government and our society through efforts to change even the smallest things around you.”

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