Ministry of the Interior and Safety Holds Ceremony for Government Innovation Meritorious Service Awards... 46 Awardees and 3 Institutions Honored

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Cheol-young] The Ministry of the Interior and Safety announced on the 3rd that it held the '2021 Government Innovation Meritorious Government Awards Ceremony' at the Open Communication Forum space in the annex of the Government Seoul Office.

The ceremony selected representative awardees by decoration among the total 49 awards. The highest decoration awardees included Kwon Jun-hak, President of NH Nonghyup Bank, and Song Seok-hyun, Senior Executive of the National Information Society Agency (NIA), who were respectively selected as recipients of the Order of Civil Merit Dongbaek Medal, the Order of Civil Merit Magnolia Medal, and the Order of Service Merit Red Stripes. President Kwon significantly contributed to enabling residents to directly solve community problems by continuously providing financial support for the regional asset project that converts idle spaces into community spaces led by residents. Senior Executive Song greatly contributed to realizing data-driven scientific administration in the digital era by expanding the budget accounting system, which was centered on fiscal indicators, into an integrated platform linking public and private data in real time.

Additionally, three people, including Cho Sun-hee, Director of the Jeonju Social Innovation Center, who contributed to improving the quality of life of local residents by transforming a red-light district into a regional communication hub, were selected as recipients of the Order of Civil Merit. Three others, including Colonel Ko Jae-sung of the Air Force at the Ministry of National Defense, who dramatically improved work efficiency by introducing and utilizing new technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and virtual reality (VR), and Professor Choi Min-young of Sungshin Women’s University, who greatly contributed to improving public service convenience through continuous government innovation activities, were selected as recipients of the Order of Service Merit.

Fifteen people, including Fire Lieutenant Yoo Dong-ho of the National Fire Agency, who enabled rapid emergency services by transmitting underlying disease information stored on mobile phones to 119 in emergencies, were selected as recipients of the Presidential Citation. Twenty-five people, including Kang Sung-gu and Park Sung-hyun, who prepared services allowing convenient use of national technical certificates in mobile environments through familiar platforms such as Naver and KakaoTalk, along with three institutions, received the Prime Minister’s Citation.

In particular, Jang Yong-ho, Officer at the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries, who formed a public-private governance to transform long-neglected shell waste into a limestone substitute, and the Korea Robot Industry Association, which swiftly responded to environmental changes caused by COVID-19 by providing non-face-to-face robot workforce programs, were directly recommended by the public and selected as awardees, receiving the Presidential Citation and the Prime Minister’s Citation respectively.

Minister Jeon Hae-cheol expressed his gratitude, saying, “I thank all the awardees who have created tangible changes in the lives of the people through their relentless efforts for innovation in their respective positions,” and added, “We will continue to proactively respond to rapidly changing environments and pursue government innovation that resonates with the lives of the people.”

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