This chapter uses OECD standards and international best practices as benchmarks to examine Korea’s approach to the governance of digital government, the management of digital government investments, and the development of digital talent and skills in the public sector. It explores how Korea has established robust institutional arrangements, strategic planning processes, and capacity-building initiatives to drive digital transformation across government. The chapter also highlights Korea’s efforts to ensure policy coherence, promote innovation, and build a digitally skilled public workforce.
Digital Government Review of Korea
Harnessing Digital and Data to Transform Government
Abstract
Today’s rapidly changing world confronts governments with increasingly intricate challenges, from global health crises to manmade disasters, climate change, technological shifts, and geopolitical uncertainty. Digital technology can help governments respond to these pressures. However, it requires more than mere adoption for governments to leverage its full potential. Instead, a robust and coherent governance framework can facilitate strategic and human-centred transformation of the public sector.
The 2023 OECD Digital Government Index (DGI) indicated that governments which achieve a high level of digital maturity are characterised by the presence of robust digital governance mechanisms (OECD, 2024[1]). These enable governments to break down silos, build institutional capacity, and lead systemic change across the public sector. Such an approach fosters conditions for human-centred service design and delivery, agile policymaking, and greater accountability and trust.
The OECD E-Leaders Handbook on the Governance of Digital Government presents a framework on the Government of Digital Government (Figure 3.1) that provides practical guidance to help governments design and implement effective governance arrangements for digital transformation (OECD, 2021[2]).
Source: (OECD, 2021[2])
Rooted in the OECD Recommendation of the Council on Digital Government Strategies (OECD, 2014[3]) , the framework is structured around three interrelated facets:
Contextual factors imperative to ensure that digital transformation remains relevant, inclusive, and sustainable.
Institutional models that determine how digital transformation is steered and implemented across government.
Policy levers employed by governments to drive and sustain digital transformation.
Developing capacities to integrate digital transformation into the operational infrastructure of public-sector institutions is a requirement for robust governance of digital government. Ensuring that digital government delivers the expected benefits; promotes a coherent, integrated, and co-ordinated transformation; and secures value for money requires mechanisms and procedures to enable strategic investment in digital transformation efforts. Furthermore, the right conditions must be established to attract, develop, and retain digital talent and skills within the public sector.
This chapter analyses Korea’s governance of digital government according to the OECD Framework on the Governance of Digital Government. It also looks at Korea’s approaches to digital government investments and digital talent and skills, based on the OECD Digital Government Investments Framework and the OECD Framework for Digital Talent and Skills in the Public Sector.
Governments’ approach to digital government is shaped by their political and administrative culture, socio-economic conditions, technological landscapes, and geographical characteristics. These contextual factors influence how governance mechanisms are devised and implemented. Therefore, it is critical to understand country-specific characteristics to tailor governance arrangements.
Overall administrative culture
Korea’s governance of digital government is shaped by the influence of executive leadership. Korea is a unitary country with a strong central government, enabling coherent, nationwide, digital transformation. There has been consistent, top-level commitment to digitisation, e-Government and digital transformation across administrations. The Korean government started reforming the public administration system with the development of the 1st and 2nd Master Plans for Computerised Administration (1978-1982 and 1983-1987). These created a national administrative computer network that connects 33 cities, prioritising tasks in economic development, public service delivery, public safety, and administrative efficiency. Despite limited resources and technological constraints, Korea’s early and strategic investments, backed by legal and institutional frameworks, catalysed development in Korea’s tech industry, marking a significant milestone in its digital transformation (Ministry of the Interior and Safety, 2017[4]).
That commitment intensified over the years with continuous political support. In the early 2000s, the government made e-Government a national priority, driving Korea’s digital transformation with technological advancements and a commitment to transparency. This effort positioned digital transformation at the core of administrative reform for greater accountability and integrity in the public administration, thus supporting anti-corruption measures. In 2017, Korea invested in building robust data-driven administration, and most recently, the country moved towards digital platform government, with a presidential committee driving whole-of-government digital innovation (Government of Korea, 2024[5]).
Administratively, Korea’s public sector culture emphasises performance and technological proficiency. This can be attributed to a merit-based public service and investment in digital skills training (OECD, 2021[6]). The government has a hierarchical structure with 22 ministries, 20 administrative authorities, and eight commissions (Figure 3.2), with their mandates and responsibilities stated in national legislation (Ministry of the Interior and Safety, 2024[7]).
Historically, each ministry developed its information technology (IT) systems with support from affiliated agencies or in-house teams. This resulted in fragmentation and interoperability issues, while demonstrating individual excellence, such as in the budget-accounting and tax systems. Stove-piped legacy systems were identified as a significant impediment to integration of seamless, end-to-end services. This acknowledgement prompted a cultural shift towards interministerial collaboration and breaking down silos in the public sector (World Economic Forum, 2023[8]).
Thus, despite Korea’s political and administrative context supporting the digital transformation of the public sector with strong leadership, competent bureaucracy, and clear national strategies, the challenge is to cultivate a more horizontal and collaborative administrative culture to realise fully integrated governance across levels of digital government. Furthermore, while the stability of governance ensures the continuity of digital government policies even with changing governments, each administration’s new priorities (e.g., Government 3.0, the Digital New Deal, Digital Platform Government) require balancing novelty and long-term strategy.
Socio-economic environment
Korea’s socio-economic environment provides a robust foundation for digital transformation, with a highly connected and educated population. Digital access and literacy in Korea are among the highest worldwide. As of 2023, internet penetration in Korea reached 97% of the population (World Bank, 2025[9]), with 97.3% using smartphones in 2024 (Ministry of Science and ICT, 2025[10]). Such connectivity enables most people to access digital public services, allowing the government to deploy digital solutions, such as a nationwide alert service, without excluding significant demographic groups (Box 3.1). Furthermore, Korea’s tech-savvy population is receptive to new digital services. As of 2023, nearly 16.3 million people, around one-third of the Korean population, used the government’s AI chatbot assistant, Guppy, to access information and government services. This indicates a high level of user uptake of digital services (Government of Korea, 2024[5]).
Korea’s nationwide, text-message alert system, known as KPAS, is a communication network to inform the public about emergencies, including natural disasters, public health crises, and security threats.
Overview
KPAS was introduced in 2005 with the implementation of a nationwide Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA) infrastructure. The system uses Cell Broadcast Service (CBS) technology, which facilitates the simultaneous transmission of messages to all mobile devices in a designated geographic area, ensuring the fast dissemination of information without inducing network congestion. Since 2013, all mobile phones sold in Korea must support WEA reception, ensuring that most of the population can receive emergency alerts.
KPAS was instrumental in several scenarios:
During natural disasters, the system issues alerts for typhoons, earthquakes, and floods. These provide affected populations with real-time information and safety instructions.
During the initial phases of the COVID-19 pandemic, the system was used to disseminate of information about confirmed cases, quarantine guidelines, and social distancing measures. These alerts substantially impacted public behaviour, helping management the virus’ spread.
Initially, responsibility for issuing alerts fell on the central government, but was delegated to local governments in 2019. This decentralisation enables more localised and timely alerts.
Recent developments
In May 2023, an erroneous alert, advising Seoul residents to prepare for evacuation due to a North Korean satellite launch, resulted in widespread public confusion and criticism. Subsequently, the government unveiled plans to prevent a recurrence of this incident with an overhaul of the system, including enhanced clarity of alerts and multi-lingual support to inform foreign residents and visitors.
Social attitudes in Korea also influence digital government. The country’s emphasis on speed and efficiency – as evidenced by its “Pali, pali” (“Hurry, hurry”) culture – underlies a paradigm shift in Koreans’ attitudes toward the functionality of government services. In recent years, the private sector’s platform economy increased public expectations significantly. Koreans now expect their government to demonstrate the same degree of user-friendliness as the most widely used private services, such as Kakao or NAVER. This increases pressure on public sector institutions to innovate and enhance their service design and delivery, based on human-centred design principles and methods (World Economic Forum, 2023[8]).
Additionally, Korea’s economic profile as a leading ICT and innovation-driven economy, is well-suited to its digital transformation efforts. A robust domestic tech industry provides the government with advanced solutions and public-private partnership opportunities. For example, the government uses private-sector platforms for digital identities and payments. After legislative reforms, Koreans can use private authentication services to access public services, replacing the previous, cumbersome, public certificate system (Ministry of the Interior and Safety, 2025[14]). In addition, the government’s adoption of cloud computing employs certified domestic cloud vendors under the Cloud-First Policy, stimulating the local cloud industry while modernising the government’s digital infrastructure (Samsung SDS, 2024[15]).
Socio-economic challenges persist despite these strengths. The rapid aging of the Korean population, coupled with significant socio-economic disparities, creates the risk of a digital divide. Many senior citizens and a segment of rural residents encounter challenges using advanced digital services. The government acknowledged this issue and acted on it (Box 3.2) with the development of the Digital Inclusion Action Plan (Government of Korea, 2020[16]).
The Korean government announced the Digital Inclusion Action Plan in June 2020 to bridge the digital divide and ensure that all citizens, including those considered vulnerable, can use digital technologies for economic activities and improvements in their quality of life. The Plan addressed discrepancies in digital technology access and capabilities that could exacerbate economic and social inequality, and discrimination.
The plan laid out four objectives with the vision of “realising a digital world enjoyed together”:
Strengthen digital capabilities on a national scale
Create an inclusive environment for the use of digital technologies
Promote use of digital technology to foster inclusiveness
Foster a digital-inclusion ecosystem
Various initiatives were implemented under these objectives, including:
One-thousand Digital Competency Centers across the nation provide training in digital skills, such as the use of smartphones for banking or booking tickets, to elderly individuals, people with disabilities, multi-cultural families, and other groups with limited digital proficiency. The Centers also deploy Digital Assistants that provide 1-to-1 assistance and use digital skill-level assessments to customise the educational experience.
Expansion of affordable connectivity included the installation of high-speed internet in 1,300 rural villages and increased free public Wi-Fi. In addition, the government provides subsidies for devices and data plans for low-income groups.
Source: (Government of Korea, 2020[16])
In summary, Korea’s socio-economic favours the development and implementation of digital government initiatives. The high level of connectivity, digital literacy, and an innovation-oriented economy have been key to the rapid adoption of transforming services. The main challenge is to continue investing in ensuring digital inclusiveness across the full range of age, regional, and income demographics.
Technological context
Korea is recognised for its advanced ICT infrastructure and services; a technological landscape pivotal to facilitating digital transformation in the public sector. For many years, Korea has been at the forefront of advancements in broadband speed and mobile network technology. It was among the first countries to implement 5G on a nationwide scale in 2019, and is allocating resources to 6G research initiatives for implementation in the latter part of this decade (Ministry of Science and ICT, 2022[17]). All government agencies are connected via high-speed networks, and citizens can access services through multiple channels, including web, mobile apps, and public kiosks. The government also built shared digital and data infrastructures. Chapter 6 details Korea’s digital public infrastructure, including its digital identity, data centres and cloud service.
Environmental and geographic considerations
Environmental and geographical factors have influenced the resilience and inclusivity of Korea’s digital government. The high number of urban populations enables Korea to rollout and test digital government initiatives to enhance quality of life and safety quickly and easily. The country has demonstrated the effectiveness of its digital infrastructure and services in times of crisis.
The Korean population is predominantly urbanised, with the Seoul Metropolitan Area accounting for approximately half of the country’s total population. This concentration makes it cost-effective to deploy digital infrastructure (e.g., fibre, 5G, public Wi-Fi) in cities, which enables sophisticated urban digital services faster than in rural areas. Seoul is particularly successful in this regard, emerging as a leading example of a smart city (Seoul Metropolitan Goverment, 2023[18]). However, past focus on urban centres risked neglecting rural communities, and called for government efforts to address Korea’s geographic digital divide (Open Government Partnership, 2021[19]). These measures have influenced the government’s investment in infrastructure and the design of public services. For example, topography and islands that increase travel times for citizens to government offices underscore the benefits of seamless service provision through online or mobile channels.
Natural disasters, including typhoons, floods, forest fires, and global pandemics, put considerable pressure on governments’ resilience and responsiveness. Korea’s responsiveness to the COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated agile digital governance and strong co-ordination, leveraging its robust digital and data systems to enable quick action and rapidly deploy services. Distribution of personal protective equipment (PPE) was orchestrated through already-available digital systems (Box 3.3), a vaccine booking system was launched, and educational institutions transitioned to digital channels. Nevertheless, the pandemic unearthed areas for improvement. For example, while Korea employed data-driven contact tracing and quarantine monitoring in accordance with its legal provisions, this gave rise to concerns regarding data-privacy protection during national emergencies. The government has thus undertaken efforts to institutionalise lessons from the pandemic. These include enhancing the scalability of digital services in periods of high demand, and refining data-privacy provisions for emergency situations.
Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, Korea faced challenges in guaranteeing access to face-masks. In response, the government leveraged existing systems to stabilise distribution in a transparent manner.
Real-time stock transparency via open application programming interfaces
The Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service (HIRA) provided real-time data on mask inventories and pharmacy locations. This information was transmitted by the National Information Society Agency through NAVER Cloud via open APIs. Next, developers and startups created user-friendly applications to help citizens locate available masks efficiently and with reduced wait time.
Digital purchase tracking and enforcement
To ensure fair distribution across the population and prevent hoarding, HIRA implemented a centralised sales server, which required vendors to log each mask transaction. This mechanism ensured adherence to purchase limits and prevented individuals from exceeding their allocations. Despite technical issues during the initial implementation, the system ultimately reduced wait times and enhanced distribution.
Source: (UNDP, 2020[20])
Environmental priorities such as climate change also have a profound effect on the development of digital government. Korea’s commitment to achieving carbon neutrality by 2025 drives more environmentally sustainable information-technology practices in the public sector. One example is the consolidation of public data centres, with redundant servers retired as part of the cloud migration process, resulting in energy savings (World Economic Forum, 2023[8]). Furthermore, smart-city projects in Incheon, Busan, and other major urban centres incorporate environmental management systems that rely on government data platforms. The Incheon Metropolitan Government is developing a Digital Twin City model to optimise decision-making with urban-planning and environmental-change simulations, which optimising allow cities to predict and test disaster-response scenarios (Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, 2021[21]).
The national security situation regarding North Korea is a distinctive feature of the Korean context. This external threat environment prompts the government to prioritise security and resilience in its digital infrastructure and systems. The government maintains a constant state of alert against cyber activities of North Korea. This is reflected in the isolation or strict compartmentalisation of critical systems through the use of firewalls in Korea’s shared digital government architecture. The National Cyber Security Centre under the National Intelligence Service co-ordinates with affiliate agencies to safeguard the digital infrastructure (National Cyber Security Center, 2025[22]). This security-conscious approach has slowed the adoption of certain cloud services or data sharing. However, it also enables Korea to invest in digital security, such as exploring the adoption of technologies like quantum encryption in government communications to future-proof against external threats (World Economic Forum, 2023[8]).
Korea still faces the challenge of ensuring that residents in all regions benefit from advanced digital services. Furthermore, increased reliance on digital systems requires robust disaster-recovery strategies such as the implementation of backup systems in the event of failure during a natural disaster or external shocks. Lastly, to maintain public trust, Korea should continue to balance the use of data with individuals’ rights, as made apparent in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Clear and effective institutional models are paramount in ensuring sustainable digital transformation of the public sector. Institutional models refer to the governance arrangements –organisational structures, leadership roles, co-ordination mechanisms, and stakeholder engagement – that a government puts in place to drive digital transformation. These provide the foundation for governments to adopt a holistic, coherent, and co-ordinated approach to digital transformation. The following section examines Korea’s macro-structure, a leading institution, digital leadership, and co-ordination and co-operation mechanisms.
Macro-structure
Korea’s macro-level institutional structure embeds digital transformation at the centre of government operations. The structure is characterised by central co-ordination, accompanied by the articulation of specific roles for ministries, and complemented by cross-government committees and supporting agencies. Primary responsibility for digital government policy lies with the Ministry of the Interior and Safety (MOIS), which is entrusted to oversee digital government and the advancement of digital innovation in the public sector in accordance with the Electronic Government Act (Government of Korea, 2022[23]). In addition, the Ministry of Science and ICT (MSIT) contributes to digital transformation as the ministry responsible for overseeing the broader digital economy and infrastructure (e.g., 5G networks, the promotion of the ICT industry, and research and development of emerging technologies). Other ministries assume sector-specific functions, contributing to the digital transformation agenda through their respective initiatives.
Korea also has specialised agencies that serve as a technical arm to the government without adding layers of bureaucracy. These include the National Information Society Agency (NIA), the Korea Internet & Security Agency (KISA), and the Korea Local Information Research & Development Institute (KLID). These institutions provide technical expertise, research and implementation support for other public sector organisations. (Box 3.4).
National Information Society Agency (NIA)
NIA serves as Korea’s principal research and implementation body, supporting national digital transformation efforts. NIA was established in 1984 as the Information Technology Training Center (ITTC). It helps formulate and execute strategies that led to significant advancements in the country’s digital infrastructure and services, supporting MOIS and the Ministry of Science and ICT. Since April 2025, NIA has four objectives with the mission of “tackling social challenges and paving the way for the future of the nation through digital means”: (1) Strengthening National Resilience through AI; (2) Implementing the Digital Platform Government; (3) Leading a digitally inclusive, universal society; and (4) Establishing an Environment, Society, and Government (ESG) management system.
Korea Internet & Security Agency (KISA)
KISA is crucial to advancing and safeguarding Korea’s digital landscape. KISA was established in 2009 to enhance the country’s digital infrastructure, ensure cybersecurity, and support the public in navigating the digital landscape safely and effectively. KISA operates based on the following objectives:
Creating a digital safety-net to provide citizens and businesses with a sense of security
Strengthening proactive response to digital threats
Minimising damage caused to people’s lives by digital crime
Enhancing digital infrastructure safety
Establishing a safe society through the protection and secure use of personal information
Raising the level of privacy across the country
Developing infrastructure and solutions to strengthen personal information protection
Fostering growth engines via increased competitiveness in the information-projection industry
Embedding security protocols in the foundations of digital transformation
Securing growth opportunities within the information-protection industry
Training cyber-security professionals and mitigating skills gaps in information-protection.
In addition, KISA operates the national security vulnerability-management system, the Korea Computer Emergency Response Team and Coordination Center (KrCERT/CC), and the Cyber Security Big Data Center.
Korea Local Information Research & Development Institute (KLID)
KLID supports advancing the digital transformation of local governments. It provides technical expertise, research, and implementation support to local authorities, facilitating the development of digital services tailored to regional needs. KLID’s initiatives include facilitating digital-technology adoption by local governments, enhancing administrative efficiency, and improving public service delivery. KLID serves as a conduit between national digital policies and their adoption at the local-government level. This ensures a certain extent of coherent and equitable digital transformation across the country.
Local governments have their own digital strategies at the sub-national level, which generally align with national objectives and standards. These co-ordinate closely with MOIS and MSIT through formal and informal mechanisms. Examples include the sharing of data through the national open-data portal and the adoption of the national digital identity for region-specific services.
Leading organisation: MOIS
Korea’s Ministry of the Interior and Safety demonstrates how an adequately empowered organisation can lead digital transformation of the public sector at the whole-of-government level. For over three decades, MOIS consolidated its position as the driving force of Korea’s digital transformation, backed by political support and a concrete legal basis. This has been key to steering the digital transformation agenda across government, formulating a shared vision, enacting and amending regulations to adapt to a fast-changing environment, delivering innovative public services, and co-ordinating the efforts of all public sector institutions.
The Government Organisation Act designates MOIS as the leading public sector organisation for digital government in Korea. This mandate is reinforced by the Electronic Government Act enacted in 2001 with a clear role for MOIS. Over the years, MOIS’s authority and responsibilities were reinforced with amendments to the Electronic Government Act. An amendment in 2007 established a council of ministry Chief Information Officers (CIOs) and mandated prior consultations with MOIS for all digital projects, to ensure co-ordination. In 2021, the Act was amended to mandate MOIS to oversee and support public sector institutions’ initiatives to use AI and big data for “intelligent digital government services”.
As the leading public sector organisation, MOIS has mandates to strategically plan, implement, and oversee public sector digital transformation. The Ministry’s responsibility for national administration and government organisation management makes this possible. Within MOIS, the Digital Government and Innovation Office is responsible for co-ordination of policies that promote digital government across the public sector.
The Ministry of the Interior and Safety has decision-making and supporting roles and responsibilities specified in legislation and policies.
Decision-making responsibilities across the central government
Prioritising digital investment projects
Managing the value-proposition process (i.e., developing business cases) for digital projects
Approving digital projects
Mandating external reviews (e.g., performance assessments) of digital projects
Providing financial support for the development and implementation of digital/ICT projects
Support functions
Developing the National Digital Government Strategy
Ensuring horizontal co-ordination among central-level public sector institutions involved in implementing the National Digital Government Strategy
Supporting the development and implementation of institutional-level digital government strategies (e.g., in ministries and agencies)
Developing and overseeing the adoption of common technical (e.g., interoperability) standards for the development of digital infrastructure and enablers across central government
Advising public sector institutions at central/federal level about the implementation of digital projects (including public procurement)
Monitoring the development of digital projects across national and subnational levels of government
Co-ordinating the development of digital projects with subnational governments
In addition, MOIS oversees the management of information resources, public data, and digital services:
Information resource management – MOIS manages centralised infrastructure, including the National Information Resources Service (NIRS) and government data centres that host systems for many public sector institutions. It is also tasked with migrating government systems to a secure cloud, and setting security requirements and providing support for cloud migration.
Data governance and open data – MOIS is responsible for implementation of the Act on the Promotion of Data-Based Administration and the Act on Promotion of the Provision and Use of Public Data. These Acts (described in Chapter 4) aim to promote trusted, internal sharing of government data, and sharing of government data with the public as open data.
Digital services – MOIS promotes digital-by-design principle across all levels of government to ensure that services are delivered through different channels in an integrated and proactive manner. The ministry also oversees and co-ordinates the national service portal GOV.KR.
Placing the digital government agenda under MOIS was a strategic decision to achieve greater integration with fundamental government functions, and avoid fragmentation and silos. MOIS manages the resident register, government innovation and efficiency, local government administration, and government organisation management, including prescribed numbers of public officials (Government of Korea, 1948[31]) – all of which are crucial to the design and delivery of public services. MOIS has the capacity to embed a digital-by-design approach directly into administrative processes and public services. For example, MOIS was able to facilitate seamless information sharing system and digital identity as part of the ministry’s mandate. Furthermore, as the interior ministry, MOIS has the leverage and authority to promote standardisation and interoperability across ministries and local governments.
In addition, Korea uses MOIS’s accumulated knowledge of public governance, administrative reforms, and technology to drive the digital government agenda. Dating back to 1948, MOIS and its predecessors oversaw the early computerisation of government processes and later e-Government programmes, which built deep institutional knowledge and continuity.
Digital leadership
Korea’s digital leadership model is multi-layered: top political leaders set a shared national vision and objectives; MOIS leads implementation and co-ordination; and institutional CIOs and Chief Data Officers (CDOs) ensure execution of the objectives within their domains.
The Korean government benefits from strong leadership and commitment at the top levels. The digital transformation of the public sector has been a priority for every administration from early on. For example, the 18th President (2013-2017) championed “Government 3.0”, focusing on enhanced openness, data, and citizen-centricity. The 19th President (2017-2022) advocated for a “Data Republic”, including the introduction of the Data-Based Administration Act. Most recently, the 20th President (2022-2025) emphasised Digital Platform Government, elevating the digital transformation to a top national priority. Such political leadership has resulted in tangible support, with high-profile programmes receiving funding and inter-ministerial co-operation thanks to presidential endorsement.
The government designated CIOs in the late 1990s. Legislation stipulated that each government institutions and local governments should appoint a CIO – typically a senior official or a Director-General – to oversee the planning and management of ICT projects within their organisation (Government of Korea, 1995[32]).
As society evolves and digital transformation accelerates, the leadership required to steer digital transformation of the public sector has also changed. During the 2020 revision of the Framework Act on Intelligent Informatization (formerly the Framework Act on National Informatization), the former CIO roles were transformed into the Chief Intelligent Information Officers, recognising the importance of AI and data for digital transformation. These roles establish and promote policies related to intelligent informatisation to secure national competitiveness and improve quality of life for citizens.
Co-ordination and co-operation
Co-ordination and co-operation among all stakeholders are pivotal to ensure the coherence, consistency, and efficacy of digital transformation. They enable a holistic approach to digital transformation with sustainable impact on society, as opposed to a siloed, institution-based approach.
Korea emphasises co-ordination and co-operation to ensure coherence, integration and strategic alignment across the public sector. This is done through legal mandates, formal and informal committees, and shared platforms and services. The country’s strong performance in the OECD Digital DGI, particularly the “Digital by Design” and “Government as a Platform” dimensions, reflects its efforts in inter-ministerial co-ordination and co-operation (Figure 3.3).
Source: (OECD, 2022[33])
At the highest level, the Korean government has the Presidential Committee on the Digital Platform Government (DPG Committee) established in 2023 as a co-ordination body to drive digital transformation of the public sector. Chaired by a presidential appointee, the Committee’s 23 members include 19 private-sector experts and four ministers from the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, the Ministry of Science and ICT, the Ministry of Economy and Finance and the Personal Information Protection and Commission to ensure co-ordination with stakeholders in the public and private sectors and academia. Its aims to dismantle barriers between government institutions, facilitating a unified approach as “One Team” government with private-sector partners to integrate government systems and data for more citizen-centred services. This paradigm of the Digital Platform Government prompted a transformation of digital governance in which public sector institutions and private technology enterprises work in unison to deliver integrated and proactive services.
In addition, the CIOs Council is pivotal to co-ordinating Korea’s strategic digital agenda across central ministries and local governments. Established under Article 9 of the Framework Act on Intelligent Informatization, the Council implements policies for an intelligent information society, co-ordinates digital transformation projects, and fosters information exchanges and knowledge-sharing among central and local governments. The Council is co-chaired by the Minister of the Interior and Safety and the Minister of Science and ICT with representation from central and local government institutions to ensure inter-agency collaboration.
Korea also leverages legal frameworks to ensure co-ordination and co-operation. The Electronic Government Act stipulates the avoidance of duplicate investments, compelling public sector institutions to consult with each other and MOIS in planning digital projects (Government of Korea, 2001[29]). Furthermore, The Act on the Promotion of Data-based Administration encourages public sector institutions to share data and co-operate towards realising a data-driven public sector.
Beyond formal co-ordination mechanisms, the Korean government uses technical integration, providing shared platforms and services to facilitate co-ordination across public sector institutions. The Public Information Sharing System allows public sector institutions, including local governments, to instantly verify citizens’ information through other institutions’ databases. Another example is Government 24, a unified portal that provides citizens with access to services from multiple government departments. MOIS continuously expands the use of shared platforms, ensuring interconnectedness across all levels of government. This technical integration is a form of co-ordination because it imposes standard protocols and encourages institutions to work with national systems rather than develop their own.
The Korean government has legal and policy frameworks for co-ordinating digital transformation with local governments. The Electronic Government Act obligates each local government to develop its own plan – ensuring alignment with the national strategy – and submit it to MOIS for review (Government of Korea, 2010[34]). MOIS’s dedicated Local Digital Government Coordination Division promotes central-local co-ordination. Its objective is to prevent redundant projects, bridge digital divides, and promote interoperability between central and local government systems. For example, Saeol is a standard administrative system for local governments deployed across all 228 municipalities, supporting 22 common administrative functions. It ensures coherence across local governments and allows them to access central government databases, and services like the GOV24 national service portal (Ministry of the Interior and Safety, 2025[35]).
Korea’s institutional setup demonstrates how Korea integrates digital government as an inherent part of governance, leveraging long-term institutional capacity, leadership, and co-ordination with robust support from specialised agencies. Public-sector institutions clearly acknowledge MOIS as the leading institution in the digital transformation of the public sector. Co-ordination bodies, including the Digital Platform Government Committee and the CIO Council, facilitate co-ordination across the government, private sector, and academia. Furthermore, specialised agencies like NIA, KLID and KISA provide the necessary technical expertise and support.
However, it is important that Korea maintain agility and inclusivity in its institutional mechanisms. There is scope for further streamlining co-ordination among bodies with overlapping mandates and responsibilities, ensuring continuity of ongoing initiatives, and avoiding bureaucratic complexity. It will be vital to promote inter-ministerial co-operation and prevent the emergence of silos as the government changes and committees form to implement new national objectives. Furthermore, efforts need to be increased to ensure that all stakeholders – central ministries and agencies, local governments, citizens, and businesses – can voice their needs and contribute to and direct the development of digital government.
The E-Leaders Handbook on the Governance of Digital Government, drawing on Pillar 3 of the OECD Recommendation of the Council on Digital Government Strategies, identifies policy levers (hard and soft instruments) essential to advancing digital transformation (Figure 3.1). These support governments in operationalising their strategic ambitions, driving systemic change across government to respond to the needs of citizens and businesses.
This section examines two dimensions of policy levers: (1) strategy and planning, and (2) legislative and regulatory frameworks. Financial management mechanisms are discussed in depth under “Digital government investments”, below.
Strategy and plan
Korea has a clear vision, well-translated into actionable strategies. The planning process includes relevant ministries and agencies, and sets measurable targets, with a list of institutions responsible for implementation. Such discipline is instrumental in ensuring advancements in transforming its public sector.
As digital transformation remained a priority throughout changes in government, broader national plans have provided a high-level vision and shaped Korea’s digital government agenda. In July 2020, the Digital New Deal was launched as a national innovation project to accelerate digital transformation and boost national and industrial competitiveness. It included public service enhancements, digital infrastructure, and the development of talent for the digital future. Following the 2022 change in government, the administration announced a new national strategy in 2023: the Digital Platform Government Roadmap. It sets out a detailed, multi-phased plan to integrate government systems, reconstruct infrastructure, and deliver key projects in the areas of data and AI.
Alongside politically influenced national plans, Korea’s digital government benefits from consistent strategic planning set out in the Electronic Government Act. It requires MOIS to develop a master plan every five years, and obligates public institutions and local governments to develop institutional plans in line with the master plan (Government of Korea, 2001[29]). Detailed action plans accompany medium-term national strategies.
The current, 2021-2025 master plan outlines Korea’s vision, strategic pillars and initiatives, implementation timeline, and specific activities with the institutions responsible. Building on past achievements, the government set the vision and objectives for “A Better World Opened by Digital”. To achieve these, four strategic pillars were developed with corresponding initiatives and activities (Box 3.6 on the following page).
However, frequent changes in broader national agendas could create risks for the sustainability of initiatives, causing unnecessary disruptions and negative returns on government investments. As the Korean government has legal an obligation to develop five-year digital government strategies, it would be important to take stock of past achievements and build on ongoing initiatives to yield concrete results. Moreover, the context of rapidly evolving external factors, such as emerging technological advancements or crises, further compounds the challenge of maintaining flexible strategies. The Korean government showed prompt response during the COVID-19 pandemic, but challenges posed by technological disruptions – including those stemming from AI – will test the country’s strategic agility for years to come.
Vision and objectives
By 2025, under the vision of “A Better World Opened by Digital”, the government aims to:
Digitally transform 80% of major public services
Migrate 100% of public-sector systems to the cloud
Design public services digitally from the planning stage (digital-by-design)
Deliver services through citizen’s preferred channels (omni-channel approach)
Ask citizens to submit information only once (‘once-only’ principle)
Open public data and services to the private sector for reuse
Strategic pillars and initiatives
Pillar 1. Intelligent Service Innovation (4 initiatives, 45 activities)
Personal digital assistant – offering proactive service-notifications and support
MyData and digital certificates – citizens can manage and share their personal data and receive digital certificates across sectors (e.g., health, education, patents)
Mobile ID and authentication – blockchain-based mobile IDs and expanded use of private-sector authentication services
Proactive and integrated services – proactive notification of service entitlement through GOV24 or at a community centre; integrated welfare and employment services; a next-generation administrative system for local governments, for greater interoperability and location-independent services
Pillar 2. Data-Driven Administration (4 initiatives, 58 activities)
Big-data platforms – development of sector-specific platforms (e.g., health, real estate, maritime safety) linked to the central government’s data-analytics centre
Real-time, data-based crisis response – using field data from sensors, drones, and extended reality (XR) to monitor disasters, disease outbreaks, and infrastructure safety
Open Data 2.0 – shift from supply-driven to demand-driven public data release, including unstructured data and application programming interfaces (APIs) for private sector use
Cloud-based work environment – full migration of government systems to a government cloud; 5G network for the public sector, and AI in cybersecurity for secure, efficient operations
Pillar 3. Digital Infrastructure Expansion (4 initiatives, 21 activities)
Inclusive access – support for vulnerable groups (e.g., the elderly, people with disabilities) via AI speakers, wearable devices, and digital-literacy programs
Public-private collaboration – civic hacking, co-development of services, and certification systems for private providers of public services.
Global leadership – expanded international co-operation (e.g., OECD, UN SDGs), digital government export, and capacity-building in developing countries
Legal and regulatory reform – updated laws to support digital ID, MyData, AI-based administration, and privacy protection (e.g., pseudonymised data governance)
Note: The strategy was unofficially translated.
Legal and regulatory framework
Principle 12 of the OECD Recommendation of the Council on Digital Government Strategies encourages governments to ensure that general and sector-specific legal and regulatory frameworks enable seizing digital opportunities (OECD, 2014[3]). A robust legal and regulatory framework constitutes the cornerstone of effective digital governance, shaping the institutions, policies, and measures that drive transformation. It is evident that binding and non-binding instruments both guide the design, implementation, and oversight of digital government strategies. With today’s digital landscape evolving at a rapid pace, it is crucial for governments to establish legal and regulatory environments that facilitates the realisation of digital potential while mitigating the risks posed by emerging technologies.
The 2023 OECD DGI presents an overview of the legal and regulatory frameworks for digital government in the OECD member and partner countries. Most participating countries have legislation governing enablers such as sharing data (82%), digital documents (82%) and interoperability (82%). On the other hand, legislation in emerging areas like green digital (18%) and experimentation within the public sector (29%) remains rare (Figure 3.4).
Note: Data shows aggregated information from 33 OECD countries and 6 accession-candidate countries. Data is not available for Germany, Greece, Slovakia, Switzerland, and the United States.
Source: (OECD, 2022[33])
Korea has a complex regulatory framework for digital government, revised in the last five years to keep pace with technological advances and societal expectations. The Electronic Government Act is a foundational legislative instrument that established principles and guidelines for the governance of digital government. The Act underwent numerous amendments to incorporate new visions from changing governments and the emerging needs of society.
Korea’s regulatory framework is complemented by a series of laws addressing specific issues (Table 3.1). Most of these include an article on the relationship to other statutes to ensure harmonisation.
Korea collaborates with industry when establishing legislation and regulations, to ensure that policies are practical and forward-looking. In the development of its AI ethics guidelines and strategy, the government engaged experts from major tech companies, academia, and civil society to develop the national AI strategy and ethics standards (World Bank, 2022[41]). This multi-stakeholder approach facilitated aligning the guidelines with industry needs and expertise (Ministry of Science and ICT, 2024[42]).
Korea’s Regulatory Sandboxes are another example, which shows how the government tests the efficacy and safety of novel approaches in a controlled environment before making legislative updates. The government collaborated with a consortium of leading mobile service providers to develop the secure PASS mobile app for storing and authenticating drivers’ licences. This public-private partnership began in 2019 as an ICT regulatory sandbox pilot. Following rigorous testing and security assessments, the government acknowledged digital licenses as legally equivalent to a physical ID. A regulatory committee under MSIT approved updates to the PASS digital license in October 2023, allowing it to include resident registration numbers. This cemented its status as an official ID accepted in the financial, public, and medical sectors. This regulatory change was made possible by the industry partnership’s proven, safe implementation as proof of concept.
Overall, Korea’s legal and regulatory framework is comprehensive, creating a solid governance environment with clear rules and principles for diverse aspects of digital government. Continuous updating of legislation is instrumental in ensuring that regulatory frameworks remain aligned with ongoing developments and changes. It would be important for Korea to strengthen engagement with the private sector, academia, and civil society to guarantee that legal and regulatory frameworks remain appropriate and adhered-to in practice, especially when rapid innovation outpaces regulation.
As governments accelerate digital-transformation efforts, global spending on digital technologies in the public sector is projected to increase by 8.4% annually between 2024 and 2027 (Gartner, 2024[43]). This investment is taking place in a context of fiscal pressure, where public administrations are expected to do more with less (OECD, 2025[44]). Managing investments in digital government is thus essential to ensuring that public spending delivers value for money, supports service quality, and meets citizens' increasing expectations
An end-to-end approach to investments in digital government can ensure that initiatives are cost-effective, delivered well, and align with the government’s strategic objectives. Korean investment governance is a leading example of such an approach, with centralised oversight, robust processes, and incentives to ensure the delivery of digital initiatives. However, there is an opportunity to enhance the existing model with additional considerations in the review processes, more flexible budget allocations, and a more innovative approach to procurement.
The OECD Digital Government Investments Framework
The OECD’s Digital Government Investments Framework guides countries toward strategic and effective investments in digital transformation across the public sector. The framework presents an end-to-end and whole-of-government approach based on three pillars: strategic planning, coherent implementation, and comprehensive oversight (Figure 3.5).
Source: (OECD, 2025[44])
While these pillars align with the general phases of investment, they should be considered a cycle: better planning leads to better delivery, and comprehensive monitoring informs decision-making about current and future investments. Each pillar also includes three building-blocks to ensure that governments deliver value, maximise impact, and mitigate risk as part of a co-ordinated approach.
Korea’s results in the 2023 OECD DGI show that the country has a strong model for managing digital-government investments across government, scoring 83% for its maturity in the area, compared to the OECD average of 51%. Evidence shows that Korea’s centralised approach provides close oversight over the alignment, delivery, and outcomes of digital-government investments. This is evident at several points across the pillars of the investment cycle, as shown in Table 3.2 below. For example, the data shows policy levers for digital/ICT projects including:
dedicated funding
standardised value-proposition models
standardised approval systems
standardised models for project management
guidelines for digital/ICT procurement in the public sector
monitoring systems to track progress
common methodology/tools to evaluate the impact of projects
ex-post cost-benefit analysis
These policy levers highlight that Korea’s management of digital government investments has three main characteristics: a focus on alignment with strategy, budgetary priorities, and legal requirements; robust processes in place in planning and approval stages; and the evaluation of performance through enforcement and incentive measures to improve delivery. However, the results also show the potential for Korea to further strengthen its approach under each pillar is to digital government investments, including with:
environmental risk assessments for digital and ICT projects
agile project methodologies for more innovative and iterative delivery
open information on projects for greater transparency and accountability, and
evaluations to understand the environmental impact of digital government investments.
Korea’s approach under each pillar is discussed in detail within the Korean context below, to analyse the results and highlight both progress to date and efforts that could be made to strengthen Korea’s approach to managing its digital-government investments.
Pillar 1: Strategic Planning
The Strategic Planning pillar focuses on strengthening the governance of digital government through clear leadership, policy levers, and co-ordination mechanisms to steer public-sector digital transformation. Through strategic alignment and co-ordination between stakeholders, governments can improve planning of digital government investments. This pillar includes improving:
Co-ordination and alignment for the effectiveness of digital-government investments in light of strategic and policy objectives, which benefits from clear leadership and defined responsibilities
Risk-management to identify and mitigate risks in a timely manner, based on a comprehensive approach that considers delivery, compliance, security, and social and environmental impact
Value-proposition in the development of business cases or proposals using a structured and standardised method to estimate the costs, benefits, and potential risks.
Korea’s strengths under the Strategic Planning pillar are due to its efforts towards aligning projects to strategic and policy objectives, and its close management of proposals during the planning and approval stages of digital-government investments.
The Ministry of Economy and Finance’s (MOEF), MOIS’s, and MSIT’s central role in managing digital government investment in Korea ensures alignment with the government’s digital strategy and its budgetary priorities, and that public institutions comply with guidance and legal requirements related to digital and data initiatives. It is also clear that duplication of investments is examined in investment planning for digital projects, encouraging public institutions to consider sharing or reusing solutions.
Second, Korea has a robust process for planning and approval of digital-government investments, which leverages preliminary reviews and feasibility studies for investments above a certain threshold. Article 67 of the Electronic Government Act, the Guidelines for E-Government Performance Management, and the Pre-Consultation and Performance Management Business Manual require a preliminary review for new projects or projects soon to be implemented that are worth:
KRW 1 billion or more for the central government.
KRW 200 million or more for regional governments.
KRW 100 million or more for local governments.
Furthermore, Article 38 of the National Finance Act requires feasibility studies for digital projects (Box 3.7) of more than KRW 30 billion of government funding. To support these studies, MOEF provides guidance and forms to public institutions as part of the Detailed Guidelines for Preparing the Budget and Fund Management Plan. MSIT assesses the findings and recommends to MOEF whether a project is sufficiently viable to receive funding.
Feasibility studies supervised by the MOEF evaluate the validity of large-scale projects to ensure efficient allocation and management of public resources. Their purpose is to prevent budget waste and enhance fiscal management through transparent, fair, and objective decision-making based on:
Project overview, including the background, purpose, progress, and project plans
Economic feasibility analysis to assess costs and benefits, estimate demand, and calculate financing, including return on investment
Policy analysis to assess non-economic factors, policy coherence, execution commitment, funding risks, and special evaluation categories
Balanced regional development to evaluate local economic impact and reflect national policy to prevent regional imbalances
Comprehensive evaluation using the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) to assess project appropriateness, investment prioritisation, and policy suggestions based on economic and policy analysis
Projects subject to preliminary review by MOIS (Box 3.8) include those for the central government and affiliated agencies, public institutions, metropolitan city governments and affiliated agencies, and regional public corporations. MOIS considers the project objective, scope (including users), function, and cost. Its assessment is provided to MSIT and MOEF as a reference for their assessments of the project.
Key to Korea’s e-Government strategy, the preliminary review process for digital and ICT projects ensures that proposed initiatives are strategically aligned, performance-driven, and fiscally responsible. Before receiving funding, government agencies must submit comprehensive project plans that define objectives, expected outcomes, and key performance indicators. These plans are evaluated for technical feasibility and their alignment with national digital strategies and policy priorities.
The review process assesses project necessity, potential for public value-creation, and risk of duplication with existing initiatives. This helps prevent resource waste, promotes interoperability across government systems, and ensures that projects contribute to Korea’s digital transformation goals.
By linking project design with performance-based budgeting and strategic oversight, Korea’s preliminary reviews foster accountability, effective resource-allocation, and cohesive digital-service delivery. This structured approach ensures that public investments in ICT have impactful and align with long-term government priorities.
As Korea strengthens its strategic planning of digital and ICT investments, it could incorporate greater consideration of social and environmental factors in the review of proposals, adopt a more flexible budgeting approach to allow agile and rapid transformation, and bolster the assessment of environmental risks for digital and ICT projects.
The review process for budget approval and annual evaluations ensures that public institutions address user needs, environmental impact, and considerations for individual rights and liberties. Given the strength of the approval and review processes for digital initiatives, there could be opportunity for measures to address these gaps – particularly around environmental impact. Similarly, and in line with the findings in Chapter 6, there is an opportunity to incorporate evidence of user research and testing at each phase so that solutions address the needs and expectations of users at all stages of a project.
A more flexible approach to budget allocation could allow agile and rapid transformation. Public institutions expressed that they find the current budget-allocation process effective, but constraining. They reported the annual allocation to be very rigid, not allowing for changes during delivery to explore digital technologies, like AI, or respond to changing user needs and expectations. As such, Korea could explore additional budget mechanisms, including multi-year funding, funding teams instead of projects, allowing a margin of overspend where there is a strong business case, or funds dedicated for the uptake of AI.
For example, France has two co-financing funds to accelerate digital transformation of the public sector. Fonds pour la transformation de l'action publique (FTAP) is available to fund both large-scale (above EUR 9 million) and medium-scale investments through open or thematic fund application, and staggers the funding to ensure agile and iterative delivery of projects, with semi-annual check-ins with the agency that administers the fund. The Fonds d'accélération des Startups d'État et de Territoire (FAST) is open to intrapreneurs within the French public administration who have developed a digital public service that has validated its value proposition with a significant segment of its target users and is therefore ready for large-scale deployment. In addition to co-financing, the fund provides personalised support to the teams in charge of the service, helping them remove obstacles to growth. In return, it requires them to set a quantified impact target and a percentage of total users to be reached, and it ensures rigorous monitoring of progress toward these results (Direction interministérielle du Numérique, 2024[48]).
In Denmark, the Government allocated around DKK 290 million (EUR 40 million) to two funds providing grants to public-sector innovation projects. The first (around DKK 190 million) supports pilot projects for AI solutions to solve societal problems, with a focus on upholding the security and ethical use of citizen data. The second is dedicated to proposals for the use of new technologies, including AI, to raise welfare, alleviate the shortage of labour or support the green transition. Agencies apply directly to these funds. The strength of the applications is evaluated against the intent of the funds by the Agency for Digital Government, Danish Regions, an association of the five regions, and Local Government Denmark (an association of the 98 municipalities) (Digitaliseringsministeriet, 2025[49]), (Digitaliseringsstyrelsen, 2022[50]).
Finally, Korea could bolster its assessment of environmental risks for digital and ICT projects. The Electronic Government Act requires agencies to assess and manage the risks of their projects – currently standardised for risks associated with cybersecurity, service disruption, legacy ICT systems, and the privacy and rights of citizens. However, the 2023 OECD DGI highlighted a gap around environmental risks, which could include sustainability, energy consumption, impact on the environment, and regulatory compliance. Denmark issued guidance on risk management, sustainability, and green procurement (Økonomistyrelsen, 2024[51]), and the United Kingdom Treasury developed its Green Book to help agencies evaluate the effects of climate change, energy use, and greenhouse gas emissions (HM Treasury, 2022[52]). Finally, France’s Référentiel général d'écoconception de services numériques (RGESN) framework for the eco-design of digital services encourages the use of renewable energy, efficient resource-management, and compliance with environmental standards (Direction interministérielle du Numérique, 2024[53]).
Pillar 2: Coherent Implementation
The Coherent Implementation pillar focuses on developing digital investments to build coherence and agility in the use of digital technologies in the public sector. Governments use shared tools and methodologies to realise benefits. This pillar includes improving:
Approval and funding, to determine whether a proposal is feasible and ready for implementation, to prioritise projects based on strategic objectives and delivery confidence, and to allocate funding
Project management, using standardised tools and methodologies to support the agile and effective delivery of investments in the digital transformation of the public sector
Public procurement and GovTech collaborations with diverse procurement approaches to promote strategic partnerships with external actors to support successful project delivery
Under this pillar, Korea’s strengths are its standardised project-management methodology and strong procurement function. In accordance with Articles 2 and 14 of Korea’s Guidelines for the Development and Operation of Information Systems of Administrative Agencies and Public Agencies (Government of Korea, 2022[23]), all government agencies must undertake detailed planning, risk management, and continuous monitoring and evaluation for their projects. The guidelines mandate standardised procedures and documentation to ensure consistency and quality. These encompass comprehensive planning, early risk-identification and mitigation, maintaining clear and consistent documentation, regular stakeholder-engagement, and integrating security measures throughout the project lifecycle. Continuous monitoring is done to track progress and ensure compliance. This model ensures more-consistent outcomes for digital projects, and more-effective project oversight.
Korea's centralised procurement function supports the public administration with various methods to procure digital solutions. It is mandatory that procurement go through a centralised system manged by the Public Procurement Service (PPS), which collects and reviews requirements from government agencies, checks compliance with policy and legal requirements, approaches the market, and collects and evaluates proposals with the assistance of independent, third-party evaluators. Enabling this process, PPS developed the Korea Online E-Procurement System (KONEPS) as a platform to manage the end-to-end process from tender, to contracting and payments. It includes open data to ensure transparency in public procurements (Public Procurement Service, 2020[54]). The ‘Next-Generation KONEPS project” (Box 3.9) was developed and launched in March 2025 to enhance the single digital window for procurement and improve use of technologies like AI, big data, blockchain, and cloud.
KONEPS is used to manage the procurement cycle from notices, through bidding, contracts, and payments. It features an online marketplace offering goods and services at pre-negotiated prices. From 2021 to 2025, the PPS undertook a project to replace the old KONEPS system and onboard new public institutions. The ‘next generation’ upgrade integrates advanced technologies like AI and blockchain, supports mobile tender submissions, and enables digital document sharing. Policy officials can gain real-time access to procurement data, while AI offers user support and blockchain helps prevent forgery and enhances transparency in public procurement. The ‘next generation’ KONEPS also introduces:
Customised notice recommendation, which uses supplier information and bidding history to recommend relevant opportunities, benefitting SMEs and newer providers in the market
Demand forecasting, which analyses various product and service categories to predict demand and provide information for business planning
Bid congestion prediction, which displays platform traffic levels, allowing bidders to choose less congested times for stable access, and recommendations based on purchase history
Source: (Choi, 2024[55])
As Korea looks to strengthen the implementation of digital and ICT investments, it could incorporate more innovative procurement mechanisms and more-agile project-management methodologies to foster innovation and encourage more cost-effective delivery of digital solutions.
Korea could enhance public procurement to improve delivery of strategic objectives. The current model could evolve through more-innovative procurement practices, including GovTech collaborations between the public and private sectors and other actors to co-design digital solutions (OECD, 2024[56]):
Design contests to seek innovative pitches or design-concepts from the market
Pre-commercial procurement to engage suppliers in the development of solutions before they become commercially available
Innovation partnerships to collaborate with suppliers to co-create innovative solutions
Competitive dialogue to allow detailed discussions with suppliers to refine project specifications
Outcome-based procurement to focus on desired outcomes rather than on specific products or service requirements.
This could enable public institutions to better use available funds in a more agile and cost-effective way, which would support user-centred outcomes and more-targeted engagement with Korea’s private sector. Lithuania’s GovTech Lab co-ordinates a structured program to define public-sector challenges with agencies, call for solutions from the market, test and develop proofs-of-concept, and scale solutions for reuse (GovTech Lab Lithuania, 2025[57]; GovTech Lab Lithuania, 2024[58]). Norway’s StartOff program used a repeatable methodology to deliver solutions in collaborations between the public and private sectors, within a defined six-month process from defining the challenge to delivering a minimum viable product (MVP) toward the solution (Direktoratet for forvaltning og økonomistyring, 2024[59]).
Korea could adopt more-agile project methodologies for more innovative and iterative delivery, which could be useful in the context of Korea’s annual funding model. Rather than a more traditional and sequential ‘waterfall’ approach, agile methodologies break projects into smaller work packages to gather requirements, design, and pilot solutions to test, ensuring that the result delivers the outcome required and meets the needs and expectations of users. The United Kingdom’s government supports agencies with principles, tools, and governance needed to work in a more agile. This includes understanding how to use agile methods (e.g., user stories and roadmaps), how to measure and report on progress, how to ensure the right spending controls, and how to run a service sustainably (GOV.UK, 2025[60]).
Pillar 3: Comprehensive Oversight
The Comprehensive Oversight pillar focuses on accountability and performance, enabling countries to track investment portfolios, improve project-management, and ensure that investments yield the intended benefits. This pillar includes improving:
Monitoring and accountability to track the progress of investments and enable early identification of risks in the delivery of projects
Policy evaluation to assess the ex-post effect of investments, including return on investment (ROI), contribution to policy objectives, and extent of the intended benefits
User-satisfaction measurement to know the extent to which investments meet user expectations for and improve their experience with public services
When implemented as part of an integrated investment framework, these elements can support governments to make more impactful investments in their digital future.
Korea’s strengths in comprehensive oversight are its annual reviews of digital and ICT investments to determine whether they should continue to receive funding, and the development of digital systems to support monitoring.
The Korean model has a strong model of annual reviews to evaluate the performance of digital investments, enforce compliance, and incentivise more-effective delivery of outcomes. While the development and delivery of digital initiatives are generally approved as three-year projects, budgets for these are allocated on an annual basis. MOIS develops an e-Government Performance Management Plan (Box 3.10), which includes targets and performance indicators agreed with delivery institutions.
To secure the following year’s funding, public institutions must demonstrate to MOIS and MOEF their achievement of targets, performance against indicators, overall cost and efficiency, ease of use and operation, and alignment with the government’s strategic objectives. While this method of allocating budgets might challenge the agility of public institutions in responding to new technologies or changing requirements, it nevertheless serves as an effective oversight mechanism.
As part of its e-Government Performance Management Plan, Korea institutionalised a digital and data-driven approach to managing public-sector performance and finances. Two components are the Integrated Evaluation System (e-IPSES) and Performance-Based Budgeting (PBB).
e-IPSES is a central, digital platform that consolidates performance data from all government agencies. It is a cornerstone of Korea’s e-Government infrastructure, enabling transparent and systematic evaluation of government programs in real time. e-IPSES aligns performance metrics with strategic goals, providing an evidence base for financial planning and resource reallocation.
PBB ensures that budget decisions are directly informed by program outcomes. Government agencies must submit annual performance plans and results, conduct self-assessments, and participate in targeted evaluations. These feed into the budgeting process, linking fiscal decisions to public value.
Together, e-IPSES and PBB exemplify Korea’s integrated approach to public financial management: leveraging digital tools to promote efficiency, accountability, and results-oriented governance in line with its e-Government vision.
Korea has several digital-finance systems that help monitor the government’s financial management (Box 3.11). These platforms act like the nervous system of Korea’s public finance, linking data, decisions, and actions across institutions. By promoting automation, compliance, and capacity-building, Korea’s digital-finance systems enhance transparency, operational efficiency, and fiscal accountability, ensuring public resources are managed responsibly and aligned with national policy goals.
Korea’s digital finance infrastructure strengthens public-sector financial management through a suite of integrated systems:
dBrain+ acts as a ‘next-generation’ digital accounting system to manage national budgeting, execution, and settlement in line with financial laws, enabling real-time oversight
Public Institution Accounting System ensures transparency by standardising the submission and analysis of financial statements across the public sector
eGrants digitises the management of government subsidies, offering traceability, efficiency, and reduced administrative workload
In addition, Korea’s eFinance Learning training platform equips government officials with the skills to navigate and optimise these systems.
To strengthen its comprehensive oversight of digital and ICT investments, Korea could publish information on projects for greater transparency and accountability, as well as improve its efforts to evaluate the environmental impact of digital government investments.
The 2023 OECD DGI highlighted that Korea could improve its disclosure of information on projects, for greater transparency and accountability. To achieve this, Korea could create a publicly available dashboard or publish status reports offering regular data on digital and ICT projects. In addition to the annual reviews, this could encourage more efficient and effective project delivery. France publishes an overview of major digital projects, aggregated budgetary indicators, any signs of planning slippage, and expected impact (Direction interministérielle du Numérique, 2024[63]). Denmark’s IT Council publishes an assessment of the progress of major IT projects, using a ‘traffic light’ rating to categorise the investments based on expected project costs, adherence to schedule, and expected realisation of financial and non-financial gains (Økonomistyrelsen, 2024[64]), (Økonomistyrelsen, 2024[51]).
The 2023 OECD DGI also highlighted that Korea could improve its evaluation of the environmental impact of digital-government investments. Linked to the previously described gap in assessing environmental risks during strategic planning, Korean could monitor and evaluate the environmental impact of the projects during and after delivery. The United Kingdom Treasury’s Magenta Book (together with the Green Book mentioned previously) provides guidance to government agencies about qualitative and quantitative methods to evaluate the impact of projects – including environmental impact (HM Treasury, 2011[65]; HM Treasury, 2020[66]). The Green Book also provides more-specific guidance with regarding impacts related to climate change (HM Treasury, 2022[52]).
The digital transformation of society results in significant changes in how people communicate and interact with government, and thus in their expectations of government. Governments must therefore equip themselves with the digital skills and profiles to lead, navigate, and implement digital transformation. Many countries are adapting their work environments to foster digital competencies, creating the necessary professions, introducing essential digital skills, and offering retention plans to support their digital-transformation goals.
While Korea has opportunities to go further, it made significant progress across the three pillars of the OECD’s Framework for Digital Talent and Skills in the Public Sector, including building an enabling environment for digital work, with comprehensive and strategic approaches to developing capability, training to enhance a range of specific digital skills that can position Korea for the future, and actions to build and sustain a qualified workforce through measures to attract, develop, and retain digital skills and talent for Korea’s public administration.
The OECD’s approach to digital talent and skills in the public sector
The OECD Framework for Digital Talent and Skills in the Public Sector embeds digital capabilities across government institutions and society (OECD, 2021[67]). Building on earlier OECD work in countries such as Brazil, Panama, and Portuguese-speaking African nations, the Framework recognises that individual and team skills are essential but insufficient for successful digital transformation.
The Framework emphasises that digital maturity in government depends on skills, supportive contexts, and sustained workforce development. By examining these dimensions, the Framework informs policy on how to strengthen digital capacity across the public sector, concluding with recommendations for governments to drive coherent, system-wide digital transformation. It is structured around three interconnected pillars: (1) the enabling environment for digital work; (2) the range of skills needed among all public servants, including leaders and specialists; and (3) the actions required to build and sustain a digitally skilled workforce.
Source: (OECD, 2021[68])
Pillar 1: Creating an environment to encourage digital transformation
To support digital transformation, governments must foster an environment that enables the development of digital skills, talent, and modern ways of working. This involves leadership that articulates a clear digital vision and promotes a culture of experimentation, learning, and adaptability. Organisational structures should support improved ways of working, including through flatter hierarchies, cross-functional collaboration, and revised job roles focused on user needs rather than on traditional technology functions. These changes align workforce-planning with societal skills-development and ensure that public services remain responsive and inclusive. Creating such an environment requires a work culture that supports lifelong learning through both formal and informal training, mentoring, and opportunities to experiment without fear of failure. Agile methodologies and digital tools should be embedded across operations, encouraging innovation and flexibility. Performance, motivation, and citizen trust improve when public servants feel included, empowered, and equipped to lead change. Ultimately, digital transformation depends on technology and the capacity of people to drive and sustain change, supported by policies that enable diverse, multi-disciplinary teams to thrive. Governments must view this as a long-term investment in public-sector effectiveness and resilience.
The Korean government acknowledges the importance of cultivating digital competencies early. It made considerable progress in fostering digital proficiency among government officials and an ecosystem to leverage the expertise of the private sector and academia. The OECD review team found that the need to continually enhance digital skills is acknowledged across a multitude of Korean public institutions, resulting in an array of training programmes for public officials at the central level. Further, Korea is often seen as one of the leading countries on digital government and actively engages in peer learning and development internationally – either bilaterally or through multilaterally, as discussed in Chapter 2.
To support this, the Ministry of Personnel Management issued the Comprehensive Plan for Civil Servant Talent Development in 2024, outlining a strategic approach to a highly competent and adaptable public workforce (Box 3.12). The plan focuses on strengthening policy-execution capabilities, enhancing digital and AI competencies, and fostering a culture of self-directed learning among civil servants. It introduces training programs tailored to roles and career stages, emphasising foundational education for new hires and continuous professional development. Initiatives include expanding policy-relevant education, integrating ethical AI use, and leveraging digital platforms to facilitate accessible and flexible learning. The plan highlights specialisation in job functions and supports government responsiveness in addressing national challenges such as demographic shifts and technological transformation. By aligning talent development with national priorities, the improves public-service delivery and reinforces the government's capacity to meet evolving public needs (Ministry of Personnel Management, 2024[69]).
The 2024 Comprehensive Plan for Civil Servant Talent Development released by Korea’s Ministry of Personnel Management sets out a roadmap to enhance the capabilities of public officials in response to national challenges and global trends. It aims to build a competent, agile, and forward-looking civil service capable of driving policy implementation and public value in an era marked by demographic change, digital transformation, and growing complexity.
The plan emphasises three priorities: (1) strengthening policy responsiveness and execution; (2) promoting self-directed learning among civil servants; and (3) delivering customised training tailored to career stages and roles. Initiatives include foundational training for new recruits, expanded onboarding programs, professional development focused on digital skills, artificial intelligence, and ethical governance. To support continuous learning, the government will enhance digital-learning platforms and increase access to job-specific education.
Implementation will be guided by clearer role definitions, improved training infrastructure, and stronger alignment between national policy goals and workforce development. By combining strategic foresight with practical reforms, the plan aims to train a more capable, innovative, and accountable public sector.
Complementing this plan, MOIS has Guidelines for Building Data Competency of Public Institutions to enhance data capabilities in government entities. These guidelines emphasise the importance of integrating data-driven practices into public administration to improve decision-making, policy development, and service delivery. Components include establishing dedicated data-management roles, implementing standardised data-governance frameworks, and investing in training programs to develop data literacy among public officials. The guidelines advocate for inter-agency collaboration to facilitate data sharing and the adoption of advanced analytics tools. By adhering to these directives, public institutions foster a culture of data-informed governance, leading to increased efficiency, transparency, and responsiveness in addressing public needs (Minitery of the Interior and Safety, 2022[71]).
Korea’s efforts target several roles across the public administration, including management, back-office and frontline civil servants, specialised teams (e.g., digital, ICT, and data), and policy roles. In the plan’s implementation, the Korean Government uses:
Formal training programs about different topics, provided by Korea’s National Human Resources Development Institute
On-demand training through the Nara Learning Centre via a digital platform, where civil servants can learn at their own pace
Informal learning mechanisms through the Public Human Resource Development Platform, which supports knowledge and skills transfer using public officials as content creators (e.g., with a curated selection of the best lecture recordings)
Multi-disciplinary teams, where possible, to deliver digital solutions
Mobility and skills-transfer mechanisms, including personnel movement of civil servants across the public sector (as discussed in the sections that follow) with such mechanisms as knowledge transfers and handovers as well as occupational restructuring to secure specialised workforce in such fields as ICT and data and long-term employment mechanisms in order to maintain continuity.
In addition, many public institutions provide training opportunities specific to their work. This ensures that public officials have access to skill-development opportunities tailored to their roles and responsibilities. Finally, to maximise these efforts, some agencies link training initiatives to the assessment of employees’ performance, as in the Korea Customs Service (Box 3.13).
The Korea Customs Service (KCS) has a comprehensive, performance-linked training framework to enhance the effectiveness and professionalism of its workforce. Central to this approach is the Customs Human Resources Development Institute, which offers a range of programs, including foundational, specialised, and global leadership courses. These align with specific job roles and career stages, ensuring that training is applicable and impactful.
To evaluate the effectiveness of its training, KCS employs results-based management. This includes randomised controlled trials to assess behavioural changes among trainees, providing empirical data on the impact of training programs. Additionally, KCS uses a professor-evaluation system that assesses lecture quality, satisfaction levels, and research outcomes, with rewards for high-performing instructors.
The KCS Charter reinforces a culture of accountability by establishing clear service standards and procedures for addressing customer dissatisfaction. Collectively, these initiatives demonstrate KCS's commitment to integrating performance metrics into its training programs, fostering a responsive and competent customs workforce.
These initiatives create an environment that enables the development of digital skills, talent, and modern ways of working to drive the digital transformation of Korea’s public administration.
Korea still can face challenges in carrying out long-term complex projects especially in technical domains like digital transformation due to the rapid pace of technological change and frequent personnel movement. In addition to its initiatives on large-scale digital upskilling in the public administration, there is growing recognition of the need to balance mobility with role-specific stability. To address this, Korea could consider encouraging long-term service in digital areas, protected offering targeted retention incentives, and professionalising its digital workforce. Estonia maintains long-term technical staff in key digital agencies, such as the Information System Authority and the Government CIO Office, to ensure continuity and sustained leadership. The United Kingdom’s Government Digital Service (GDS) and departmental digital teams use dedicated Digital, Data, and Technology (DDaT) career frameworks that limit rotation and support deep expertise. These models show that investing in stable, skilled, digital roles is critical sustained innovation, ensuring the effectiveness of service delivery, and achieving long-term digital transformation in the public sector.
Pillar 2: Developing skills to support digital government maturity
Public sector organisations must prioritise developing and maintaining the right skills across their workforce to support digital government maturity. This means equipping public servants with technical competencies, socio-emotional, leadership, and user-focused skills to design and deliver modern, citizen-centric services. Governments should foster a culture of lifelong learning, supported by formal training and informal opportunities such as mentoring, peer learning, and cross-functional collaboration. Job roles and career paths must evolve to reflect the interdisciplinary nature of digital work, encouraging mobility, flexibility, and skill development. Agile methods, diverse teams, and user-driven approaches should become the norm, ensuring that staff are empowered to innovate and adapt in response to rapidly changing needs. Investing in people – not just technology – is essential to enable sustained digital transformation and deliver more-responsive, inclusive, and effective public services.
MOIS adopted a comprehensive approach to strengthening the digital capabilities of its civil service, aligning with its broader goal of advancing digital-government maturity. Central to this effort is the Digital Civil Servant Competency Framework, which categorises essential skills into three domains: technology usage; data-based policy analysis; and digital citizen engagement (Box 3.14). This framework provides a diagnostic tool to assess civil servants’ current competencies and a strategic guide for targeted upskilling. To operationalise the framework, MOIS issues detailed guidelines to government agencies for embedding digital and data competencies in their workforce. Notably, MOIS supports continuous capacity-building through collaborative platforms and cross-agency learning networks, encouraging the dissemination of best practices and innovation.
Developed by MOIS, the Digital Civil Servant Competency Framework supports the professional development of public officials in line with Korea’s digital objectives, focusing on:
Technology utilisation – building skills to understand and apply digital technologies like AI, big data, and cloud computing in public service
Data-based policy analysis – strengthening capabilities to use data for evidence-based policy-making and service improvement
Digital citizen engagement – promoting the use of digital tools to communicate with, engage, and serve the public in more responsive and inclusive ways
Used as both an assessment tool and a guide for training, the framework helps agencies identify skill gaps and invest in targeted capacity building. It ensures civil servants are equipped with the digital, analytical, and engagement skills for modern, citizen-focused governance.
Source: (Tuan and Hai, 2025[75])
To add specific skills, the Korean government implemented a comprehensive and future-focused strategy to build the digital capabilities of its civil servants, aligning with national goals for digital-government maturity (Box 3.15). Led by MOIS and delivered through the National Human Resources Development Institute, annual training and e-learning programmes address a range of competencies essential for digital governance. These include enhancing awareness of digital and emerging technologies (such as artificial intelligence, big data, the metaverse, and NFTs) and promoting digital literacy to help officials navigate transformation. User-centred governance is strengthened by courses in empathy, cross-generational communication, and active listening. Service-design capabilities are supported by training in data-driven policy-making, remote-delivery models, and conflict resolution. Open collaboration is fostered via content on negotiation, co-ordination, and integrated teamwork across departments. Trust in digital tools is reinforced through programs on cloud innovation and digital ecosystems, while data literacy is developed through courses on data analysis, visualisation, and leadership. This integrated, regularly updated approach equips public officials with technical skills and the strategic, collaborative, and user-focused mindsets to lead an increasingly digital public sector.
MOIS also organises national data-analysis competitions to promote a data-driven culture, encouraging innovation and real-world application of public data. The 10th Pan-Government Public Data Utilisation Startup Contest recognised the Land/City Law Convergence Spatial Information Analysis System, which integrates legal and urban planning data with spatial information to support more-informed land use and urban-development decisions. By harnessing open data, the system enables comprehensive analysis of regulatory and geographic factors, contributing to more-efficient and evidence-based policy-making. These initiatives demonstrate Korea’s commitment to embedding data skills and innovation in public administration.
MOIS’s Guidelines for Building Data Competency of Public Institutions provide a framework to enhance data capabilities across government agencies. They aim to institutionalise data-driven decision-making, thereby improving policy development, administrative efficiency, and public-service delivery. By adhering to these guidelines, public institutions can foster a culture of data-informed governance, with increased transparency, accountability, and responsiveness to public needs.
Initiatives outlined in the guidelines include the:
Establishment of data-management roles – public institutions are encouraged to designate Chief Data Officers (CDOs) to oversee data governance and strategy
Standardisation of data-governance frameworks – implementation of uniform standards and protocols to ensure consistency, quality, and interoperability of data across agencies
Investment in training programs – development and deployment of training modules to improve public officials’ data literacy and analytical skills
Promotion of inter-agency collaboration – facilitation of data sharing and collaborative projects between government entities to leverage collective insights
Adoption of advanced analytics tools – integration of modern data analytics and visualisation tools to support evidence-based policy-making
To strengthen its skills to support digital government maturity, Korea could consider how to structure personnel movement to allow for deeper skills and to strengthen the take-up of training in key skills at the national and local levels of government. However, it is important to note that “Mobility is not an end in itself, but should be pursued to achieve specific benefits, which need to be carefully managed” (OECD, 2023[77]). As discussed in the previous section, frequent personnel movements in the Korean public sector have previously presented a challenge, particularly regarding implementation of long-term projects. The project’s findings highlight that one opportunity to address this could be through better alignment of personnel movements with the lifecycle of key digital and ICT projects. Having civil servants embedded within these project teams for the term of its implementation could facilitate the development of more in-depth skills and enhance continuity among public officials. This would also mitigate the potential loss of institutional knowledge that often accompanies personnel changes.
In addition, more frequent and comprehensive digital skills training could be needed at central and local levels. Implementation of training programmes accessible across all levels of government could prepare public officials to adopt to digital technologies and evolving practices. Research interviews highlighted that, while Korea has extensive programmes to encourage the development of civil servants’ skills, this was not necessarily consistent between national and local levels of government. Further, stakeholders across both levels of government reported that, despite training, civil servants remain used to old systems, posing a challenge to the use of cloud-based solutions. These efforts should also consider the digital literacy required at the leadership level to facilitate this digital transformation – developing and using digital tools and skills relies on leadership fully understanding the technology in order to drive projects forward and also implement appropriate workforce strategy.
Another approach could focus on developing future-ready digital talent through the education system. This would align with Korea’s ambitious plan to train 100,000 cybersecurity professionals by 2026 (Ministry of Science and ICT, 2022[78]). This initiative is part of the broader Comprehensive Plan to Nurture Digital Talent being led by MSIT to expand digital-education opportunities and strengthen digital capacities nationwide.
One way to address these needs could leverage the skills and talent of the private sector (instead of competing with it) to drive cultural change in the public sector through innovative, public-private talent exchanges. This could allow civil servants to work temporarily in tech companies and vice-versa. These exchanges expose public officials to agile practices, emerging technologies, and user-centric design methods commonly found in the private sector. Participants would return with fresh perspectives, helping challenge bureaucratic norms and nurture a more innovative, digital-first mindset in government. In addition to solving an issue around digital talent gaps, this approach could bridge the gap between sectors, accelerating digital-skill development and cultivating a culture of collaboration, experimentation, and continuous learning in the public service.
Pillar 3: Establishing and maintaining a digital workforce
A digital workforce requires a proactive, strategic approach to recruitment, development, and retention. Governments must invest in people by offering flexible career paths, fair and transparent reward systems, and continuous opportunities for growth through formal training and informal support. Initiatives such as job mobility, mentoring, multi-disciplinary team structures, and 360-degree feedback loops empower employees, boost engagement, and improve performance. Embedding digital skills across roles rather than isolating them in technical functions ensures broad institutional capability. To adapt to an increasingly digital-first environment, public-sector organisations should promote agile ways of working, support remote and hybrid models, and ensure access to tools and technologies. Inclusive, learning-rich environments where staff feel safe to innovate and collaborate are essential for long-term success. These efforts build organisational resilience and enhance employee satisfaction and retention, ensuring the public sector can attract, grow, and keep the digital talent to meet evolving societal demands.
Korea implemented a comprehensive strategy to attract, develop, and retain digital talent in the public sector, ensuring a highly skilled workforce capable of driving digital transformation. To enhance recruitment transparency, Nara is a pan-government recruitment portal with standardised job descriptions, clear eligibility criteria, and position details, fostering accessibility and trust in public service employment (Ministry of Personnel Management, 2025[79]).
Proactive hiring strategies, including open, competitive recruitment and fixed-term appointments, are governed by the State Public Officials Act and the Decree on Appointment of Public Officials (Government of Korea, 2024[80]), enabling the government to attract specialised digital talent. The public sector is aiming to be an employer-of-choice through outreach efforts ensuring that professionals recognise government service as a dynamic career path. Bias-reduction measures such as annual workshops and consulting sessions promote fair and merit-based recruitment (Ministry of Personnel Management, 2024[70]).
Beyond recruitment, Korea prioritises talent retention through performance-based pay, career advancement frameworks, and structured professional-development programs. The Regulation on Allowances for Public Officials (Government of Korea, 2025[81]) outlines compensation mechanisms, including special duty allowances and merit-based bonuses, ensuring that high performers are recognised and rewarded. Flexible working arrangements and family-friendly leave policies reinforce workforce sustainability, creating an environment that supports well-being alongside productivity. The Act on the Capacity Development of Public Officials (Government of Korea, 2022[82]) establishes a robust framework for lifelong learning with specialised training institutions and commissioned programs (Box 3.16). These measures strengthen Korea’s ability to build and sustain an agile, high-performing digital workforce that underpins long-term public-sector modernisation.
Furthermore, the Korean government demonstrates a capacity to fill the public-sector skills and talent gap by establishing strategic partnerships to tap the expertise of the private sector and academia. Such partnerships facilitate the use of industry advancements by public institutions, innovating and enhancing service delivery in time to meet the expectations of Korean citizens and businesses.
The Act on the Capacity Development of Public Officials in Korea aims to enhance the efficiency, professionalism, and ethical standards of civil servants through systematic training and development. Enacted to strengthen public service quality, the Act establishes a legal framework for planning, implementing, and evaluating education programs tailored to various public-official roles. It mandates continuous learning and performance-based development throughout a public official’s career, emphasising competence in policy planning, service delivery, and integrity.
Provisions include the designation of responsible institutions such as the Ministry of Personnel Management and the National Human Resources Development Institute to oversee training standards and curriculum development. The Act promotes customised training by job category, rank, and function, including programs for leadership, global competencies, and digital literacy. It encourages co-operation with domestic and international institutions and supports the use of advanced learning technologies.
Additionally, the Act stipulates regular assessments of training effectiveness and encourages linking training results to promotions and evaluations. Overall, the law reflects Korea’s commitment to cultivating a skilled, ethical, and innovative public workforce aligned with national goals and changing administrative demands.
Source: (Government of Korea, 2022[83])
Challenges remain for the Korean public sector remain in more specialised fields, specifically cloud computing, data analytics, AI, and user-centred design. Public institutions acknowledge that they face challenges attracting and retaining proficient personnel, primarily due to the competitive remuneration and advancement prospects offered by the private sector.
OECD countries launched a range of strategic initiatives to address challenges in attracting and retaining digital talent, offering models for governments to strengthen their digital economies. Germany’s Make IT in Germany platform supports international recruitment by streamlining visa processes and providing comprehensive guidance for foreign IT professionals. Canada’s Global Talent Stream offers expedited work permits – often within two weeks – for highly skilled tech workers, enabling companies to fill critical digital roles quickly. Finland’s Talent Boost program supports urban and regional employers in attracting international experts, particularly in the ICT sector. France introduced the French Tech Visa, a fast-track immigration pathway for tech founders, employees, and investors, reinforcing the country's image as a startup-friendly environment. Estonia’s pioneering e-Residency program enables entrepreneurs worldwide to establish and manage EU-based digital businesses remotely, enhancing the country’s global profile as a digital hub. The United Kingdom’s Digital Skills Partnerships address regional skills gaps by fostering collaboration between government, industry, and education providers to deliver tailored digital training. These initiatives demonstrate that comprehensive approaches – including streamlined migration pathways, regional training investments, and innovative remote-business models – can boost digital talent pipelines while supporting national innovation goals. Governments looking to build a competitive digital workforce could benefit by adapting them to local contexts and economic priorities.
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