Korea and Britain have agreed to cooperate on developing online government services. 

Korea’s Ministry of Security and Public Administration (MOSPA) and the British Cabinet Office signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on December 11 agreeing to cooperate on the development of open source online government services based on the public release of government statistics. 

The MOU was signed at the request of Britain as it wanted to share Korea’s experience in establishing an “e-government” and sought cooperation on related technology. Korea’s Minister of Security and Public Administration Yoo Jeong-bok signed the MOU with British Ambassador to Korea Scott Wightman who appeared on behalf of Minister for the Cabinet Office Francis Maude. 

Britain just announced its “Open Government Partnership: UK National Action Plan 2013-2015" initiative in October and released 10,300 pieces of government data in its pursuit of an open government policy, one of its main agenda items. 

Under the MOU, the two sides are going to share knowledge and promote the exchange of human resources in relation to releasing public data and standardizing e-government services. 

The ministry said that the range of international cooperation partners with whom it is building e-government services has expanded beyond Southeast Asia, Latin America and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) to include the European Union. In its ongoing effort to develop a Korean e-government model, the ministry made a presentation on e-government at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) E-Leaders meeting in late October. The ministry also wrote up its recommendations for the development of future online government services. 

“We will provide our full support so that Korea’s experience and technology in building an e-government can play a major role in the ‘open government partnership’ initiatives being led by Britain,” said Minister Yoo.