For three consecutive years from 2001, Gangnam-gu has won the prize of most excellence for its imformatization. And for the same period about 1,700 persons from 50 countries all over the world including public officials and businessmen have visited Gangnam-gu office to learn about its e-government system. In his interview with Korea IT Times, Kwon Moon- Yong, mayor of Gangnam-gu, said proudly, "Gangnam-gu is the most active and bustling district in Korea in terms of business and economic activities. Accordingly, the job volume of Gangnam-gu's each department including architecture, tax, sanitation, and traffic is two or three times more than that of other local governments in Seoul. Nevertheless, the number of officials is almost equivalent to that of other local governments. This has been possible because of our highly effective administrative services that could be brought about by successful implementation of e-government." He went on to explain, "Gangnam-gu has introduced a new management system to satisfy our resident's needs and strengthen our district's competitiveness. This new management system is characterized by the following: Internet-based administration system, expansion of citizen's participation through e-government, outsourcing, transparent administration, and motivational system." Now let's take a more in-depth look at each one. Realization of e-Government: Internet-based Administration System All kinds of documents related to the civil services have been computerized, and so they can be handled electronically at home through Internet. As a result, citizens don't need to visit the office to receive public services, thus saving a lot of time and money. Therefore, if Internet is available, citizens of Gangnamg-gu are able to receive any kind of documents they want, anywhere and anytime. Until now, the number of electronic handlings through Internet stands at 6.45 million. The major service systems based on Internet are as follows: (1) Civil service provider . Kiosk (2) Internet-based tax payment system (3) Internet-based car registration (4) Issuance of civil affairs-related documents based on Internet (5) Cyber civil defense drill (6) Handling civil affairsrelated documents by facsimile and Internet. (7) Road control system (8) Internet-based broadcasting for National Learning Ability Test (9) e-Book. Of particular note, until now 1,700 persons of 55 countries including Japan and Rumania have visited the office of Gangnam-gu to study our computerized system. Expansion of Citizen's Participation through e-Government Based on the early establishment of egovernment, Gangnam-gu has tried to realize the true local autonomy in which all citizens actively participate, consequently bringing about participatory democracy through Internet. By using Internet, citizens can directly participate from policy planning to policy execution. Local government makes a request of citizen's opinions through e-mail, and citizens can join in the local government administration through the homepage of Gangnam-gu. At present the membership of homepage is about 330,000 and 140,000 are on the e-mailing list. The number of citizen's participation in the major policy making and business decision making stands at 948. Citizen's active participation in the administrative services based on Internet has brought sweeping changes on Gangnam-gu local government . more humble decision making, transparent and clean job handling, and administrative services on a real time basis. All these changes have made great contributions to the realization of true local autonomy. Efficiency and Cost Saving through Outsourcing Gangnam-gu has aggressively introduced outsourcing in order to take advantage of the dynamic energy and various expertises of private sector, trying to realize low-cost high-efficiency administration, and providing high-quality services to the citizens. As of now, 99 jobs in the 17 departments have been outsourced. For example: Gangnam-gu office building management, roads and back streets cleaning, legal affairs, clearance of illegal advertisements, clearance of street vendors, sanitary management, and architecture- related technical consultations. By using outsourcing, the productivity of local government administration has been highly enhanced, and the idle manpower of officials has been concentrated on developing policies. In particular, to improve the quality of outsourcing, it has made a regular survey of citizen's satisfaction, and according to the survey results, proper incentives have been given to the model constructors and penalties to the poor service providers. Transparent Administration and Motivation through Incentives "To make Gangnam-gu more clear and transparent" it has made a radical decision in August 2003 that all the important documents will be opened on the homepage of Gangnam-gu local government. As of now, 24,986 cases have been opened and 409,261 persons have visited this site (510 persons on average per day). It is also noticeable that since his inauguration in 1995, mayor Kwon has consistently adhered to his principle of personnel management. The key point in his personnel management is how much his official has served the citizens faithfully and objectively. Accordingly, regional, academic, and blood ties have been completely removed from this merit system. According to this merit rating system, the performance of all the officials will be recorded quantitatively. And based on these performance records, each official is to be promoted or transferred to other department. As a result of these efforts, office-seekers have gradually disappeared, and the passive mindset to avoid difficult jobs and not to make a mistake, trying to remain in the existing practices, has been transformed into an active and positive attitude.