South Korea seeks to tap blockchain, AI and big data for “smarter” e-government

South Korea’s Ministry of the Public Administration and Security has announced its plans to establish an “intelligent government roadmap” with central and local government bodies to operate a “smarter” e-government by using cutting-edge technologies such as blockchain, artificial intelligence (AI) and Big Data.

According to the official announcement dated November 18, the ministry said that it will launch a government-wide consultative body to discuss the implementation plan of the intelligent government roadmap. It will hold a government-wide consultation meeting with the central and the local government, and officials in charge of sharing and implementing the intelligent government roadmap plan from November 19 to 20.

For the intelligent government roadmap, the government sought opinion and needs from civilian experts such as citizens, academia, and industry. On these lines, it conducted a survey last month on intelligent government projects in October and received 52 projects from 37 institutions.

The survey results showed that the area with the greatest number of tasks was “the public affairs chatbot applying artificial intelligence and big data technology to administrative affairs, legal guidance, civil affairs consultation.” (via online translation)

In addition, a number of tasks focused on securing people's safety by combining intelligent information technology such as AI, IoT, and CCTV in social fields such as disaster, crime prevention and facilities. To that end, the ministry said that “the government has been making efforts to improve the transparency of government affairs by applying [blockchain] technology” in areas such as the social welfare sector.

At the meeting, the Ministry of Public Administration and Security will discuss the feasibility, legal and institutional constraints of the projects submitted by each institution through the operation of the pan-government council, and integrate similar or overlapping tasks by these institutions.

[The article has been written using online translation of the official release]