On April 20th, 2012, the Vice Minister of the Ministry of Public Administration and Security, Pil Eon Seo was in San Salvador, El Salvador to sign a MOU on behalf the Korean Government with the Central American Integration System (SICA) that is based in El Salvador. The Vice Minister and the Secretary General of the SICA, Dr. Juan German Daniel Gurdi?n, signed the MOU for the promotion of the ICT and the development of the "electronic government", "digital government" in the countries of SICA.



The objective for the signing is for initiatives to be implemented within the framework of this memorandum, facilitate the fortification and sustainability of the competitiveness of the ICT industry, create capacities of human resources in ICT and support e-government, in order to allow the public sector to improve the ICT services offered to the citizens.



At this time, the Government of Korea has developed bilateral projects of cooperation with some of the Member States of the SICA however with the signing of this MOU, it should extend the reach of the Korean cooperation in the region, thereby increasing the interchange of experiences and good practices between Korea and the countries of the SICA, from a national and regional perspective, as well as, to take advantage of economies of scale that this integration makes possible.



In his congratulatory address, the Secretary General of SICA emphasized the merits of the Republic of Korea, a country that was steadily built up its economy since the outbreak of the Korean war some 50 years ago, and now has a vibrant democracy and economy and one of the countries that has made a huge jump into one of the few developed countries. Korea has privileged the technological development in all the fields of human activity and one of them without a doubt, has been in the ICT sector. It has contributed at the high levels of efficiency in Korea, helping it to effectively use information so that it benefits the Korean citizens.



The Korean Vice-Minister Seo emphasized in his remarks that as a country that has received the support of other nations at times of great difficulty, Korea now has reason to support others with smaller levels of development but with potential for the progress. He expressed the respect that his government has with SICA-like integration scheme, and which inspires to support and maintain its progress. In that context, the government of Korea hopes that the signed MOU and its promotion of interchanges leads to beneficial practices and installation of systems that facilitate the modernization and accessibility of citizen-centric services to the citizenship of SICA.



Also while in El Salvador, there was 2 day forum that took place between Salvadoran and Korean government officials. The forum was titled, "Korea - El Salvador e-Government Cooperation Forum" and brought over 150 public officers to the 2 day event.