South Korea’s Digital Gov’t Index – Recognized as The Top Most Advanced OECD Country

Introduction:

South Korea has been recognized as one of the topmost advanced country among OECD- Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development countries in a report which was published on 16, October 2020.

The survey included 29 member countries and four non- member countries of OECD. The country secured the first rank among 33 countries which included the United States, Australia, Switzerland, Hungary, and Mexico. It was the first-ever Digital Government Index (DGI) report published by OECD which measured the level of digitalization and transparency of public sectors in different countries of the world.

All of these countries were surveyed from 2018-2019. Among these, South Korea topped with a score of 0.742 on a 1.0 point scale, Britain came second at 0.736, the third position was secured by Colombia at 0.729 while Denmark and Japan got 0.652 and 0.645 points respectively. The rest countries secured an average point of 0.501.

Factors included in the survey:

The survey included score points of six different dimensions.

• Digital by design
• Data-driven public sector
• User-driven sector
• Proactiveness
• Open by default
• Overall government

South Korea gathered maximum scores in two sectors namely digital by design and open by default. They measure the integration of digital technology with the present governing processes. It also includes different data, systems, and policies shared by the government to the general public.

The country showed remarkable performance within these sectors. It also showed the extent to which digitalization has embedded in the core of government policies, reforms, and administration making it a top-notch digitalized country in the world.

The OECD appreciated the efforts of the country saying, “They have worked to build long-term foundations and strategies as a basis for digital transformation” in the report.

The interior minister of South Korea, Chin Young said in the press release that “the government’s innovative effort to promote the digital transformation of the public sector have been internationally recognized and it will try to enhance it too to lead in the post-pandemic area”

Conclusion:

Through this survey, we can conclude that South Korea is now listed as one of the most advanced countries in the world. South Korean government has made huge changes in its reforms and policies which has made a great impact on revolutionizing the whole country.