SEOUL, KOREA - Under the banner of “Innovating Governance for Sustainable Development and Well-being of the People,” The United Nations Public Service Forum 2014, Day and Awards Ceremony is scheduled to take place on June 23 through 26 at KINTEX, Ilsan, S. Korea.
The UN Public Service Forum, an international event marking UN Public Service Day that falls on June 23, is designed to assist developing nations in upgrading their pubic administration services and to promote innovations in public administration worldwide by awarding best practices of public administration and sharing them with one another.
Host nation South Korea is making all-out efforts to pull off this event since this event is projected to provide South Korea with a great opportunity to share its advanced public administration and development knowhow with the rest of the world and to promote the so-called “Korean wave in public administration,” fueled by its e-government system and Government 3.0 (a new governance paradigm with emphasis on openness, sharing, communication and collaboration), to the world.
Schedule of the UN Public Service Forum 2014
“The UN Public Service Forum 2014 is comprised of a forum, an exhibition, side events and the Public Service Awards Ceremony. The forum consists of delivery of keynote speeches, a plenary discussion, workshops, a ministerial-level roundtable discussion, etc.; the exhibition will put on display best practices in public administration, such as Saemaul Undong and e-government systems, so as to offer visitors motivations and benchmarking opportunities,” said Yoon Soon-gu, the head of Preparatory secretariat for 2014 UN Public Service Forum, set up by the Ministry of Security and Public Administration of South Korea.
In addition, varied side events are in the pipeline: field trips have been planned to furnish forum participants with opportunities to get a first-hand look at how e-government systems, developed by South Korea (the Asian leader in public administration), actually works in the field. Also, cultural tours have been planned to guide forum participants around the nation’s cultural heritage sites, tourist attractions and, on a heavier note, the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), the buffer zone separating the two Koreas. “We would like to inform all the forum participants that South Korea not only excels in public administration but also stands out culture-wise,” said Yoon. Preparatory secretariat for 2014 UN Public Service Forum has recently joined forces with the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism of South Korea, Korea Tourism Organization and the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MMCA), with a view to crafting events that would help forum participants have a comprehensive understanding of South Korea. Preparatory secretariat for 2014 UN Public Service Forum is making multi-faceted efforts to put on diverse events that encompass cultures, exhibitions and innovations in public administration.
The UN Public Service Awards (PSA) and E-government Survey Awards Ceremony is also to be held. The winners of the awards are selected in four categories each year to introduce attention-worthy innovations made in public administration to the international community. Back in 2012, South Korea was named first-place winner of the E-government Survey Awards Ceremony and is considered as a strong candidate for the award again this year.
*PSA [The Public Service Awards] : The United Nations Public Service Awards is the most prestigious international recognition of excellence in public service. It rewards the creative achievements and contributions of public service institutions that lead to a more effective and responsive public administration in countries worldwide. Through an annual competition, the UN Public Service Awards promotes the role, professionalism and visibility of public service.
The international community’s requests pouring in for opportunities to learn about South Korea’s innovative public administration.
The international community is increasingly making requests for opportunities to learn about the innovative public administration system of South Korea, the leader in public administration. So many nations hope to benchmark South Korea’s public administration system, thinking highly of South Korea’s economic development projects (e.g. The Five-Year Plans of South Korea (which resulted in rapid economic development, described as the Miracle on the Han River)), human talent nurturing systems and administrative systems, Yoon said.
What’s more, those wishing to take their cues from South Korea’s public administration system are not solely from the developing world. Some Japanese politicians rated South Korea’s e-government system more highly than their own and several developed nations, including the UK, want to learn about South Korea’s advanced public administration by striking MoUs with South Korea. “Developed nations, of course, had a head start on us in cloud computing utilizing big data and the disclosure and sharing of information. However, few nations succeeded in taking full advantage of them as fast as we did,” Yoon said underling the fact that South Korea has already garnered international recognition for its advanced public service.
Innovating Governance for Sustainable Development and Well-being of the People
The host of the UN Public Service Forum 2014 is poised to communicate its global leadership in public administration to other nations, spread the so-called “administrative hallyu” (the Korean wave) even further, and better inform the international community of the nation’s culture and traditions. South Korea’s successful hosting of the UN Public Service Forum 2014, the highest-level international event for public administration, would enable the host nation to share its advanced public administration and development knowhow with the international community, enhance its international profile and consequently rev up Korean IT companies’ overseas market entry through the spread of the "Korean wave in public administration," which is fanned by Korea’s world-recognized e-government system and Government 3.0.
“Since this forum is focused on improving the well-being of the people, I hope that the public will pay attention to the event and that 2014 UN Public Service Forum will serve as an opportunity for the public to learn how public administration makes a difference in daily life and how Government 3.0, e-government systems, public data and services create value addedness and boost convenience,” said Yoon.
Recently, South Korea has been reeling from a series of massive data leaks. Technological advances and the development of big data technology have brought lots of benefits to our lives, as well as side effects. Yet, once there is a goal of enlarging public benefits, efforts to capitalize on technological advances and big data technology while minimizing such side effects should be made. “That is what trend setters ought to do. To that end, South Korea should first bolster its legal systems, factoring in various circumstances and then should move forward on this path,” Yoon mentioned.
High hopes are pinned on the 2014 UN Public Service Forum, hosted by South Korea, a trend setter in advanced public administration.
