On November 26-27, NIA President, Seang-Tae Kim and NIA Executive Director, Jeongwon Yoon took part in the Latin America & Caribbean Ministers and Senior Authorities regional e-Government Conference that took place in San Jose, Costa Rica.



The high-level meeting was organized by the host government of Costa Rica, the Organization of American States (OAS) and the Inter-American Development (IDB) in order to analyze how technology can be incorporated into public policies focused on citizens. Government officials were invited from 29 countries around the Latin American and Caribbean region along with other countries like Korea from outside the region.



The Secretary for Political Affairs of the OAS, Kevin Casas-Zamora, said that the government's emphasis should not be placed on how advanced is the technology used, but how this technology contributes to the modernization of the state.



During the meeting, international experts made presentations on topics as diverse as the challenge of social networks and their potential for citizen participation, the publication of data of public interest that may be used by others to create new online services for citizens and businesses, smart government and mobile devices, the privacy and protection of personal data, and the methods of monitoring the progress of e-government.



As per the invitation from the Costa Rican government, NIA President attended the event and made congratulatory remarks during the opening ceremony of the high-level meeting and NIA Executive Director of the Global IT Division, Dr. Jeongwon Yoon gave a presentation on the status of Korea’s mobile e-government development, infrastructure and mobile e-government initiatives.



During the meeting, another focus was the link between public policy and research. This allowed for the presentation of the results of four research projects funded in this area. The results of these investigations, and other results of the event are available on the website of the Electronic Government Network of Latin America and the Caribbean, which is in turn the main repository of news and electronic government documents in the region.



This ministerial meeting of senior officials is part of the work plan of the Network of e-Government Leaders of Latin America and the Caribbean (RED GEALC), which was established eight years ago and since consolidated as a platform for the generation and exchange of knowledge among the electronic government leaders of Latin America and the Caribbean. During the meeting, NIA President Kim met with various Ministers including from the host country—Costa Rica as well as Ecuador and others and discussed policy and technical support for resolving issues through the establishment of IACs, Green IT and Green Maturity Model, etc…



NIA President, Seang-Tae Kim (center) at opening ceremony of Latin America and Caribbean Ministerial e-Government Meeting in San Jose, Costa Rica





NIA President, Seang-Tae Kim during in the Latin America & Caribbean Ministerial e-Government Meeting in San Jose, Costa Rica




NIA Executive Director, Jeongwon Yoon giving a presentation during the Latin America & Caribbean Ministerial e-Government Meeting in San Jose, Costa Rica