WeGO’s First Thematic Group on e-Government Launched at Webinar
June 7, 2021
SEOUL – The WeGO e-Government Thematic Group was launched at the thematic group’s first webinar today. The launch of this knowledge-sharing platform, which will support members on this theme through activities such as seminars, workshops, training programs, and feasibility studies focused on e-government, was viewed by over 100 participants.
In his opening remarks, WeGO’s Secretary General Kyong-yul Lee emphasized the importance of e-government for smart cities saying that “e-government maintains the central priority for a smart city”, and affirming WeGO’s commitment to work on this topic. The Mayor of Shiraz, who originally proposed the creation of this group, thanked WeGO and expressed his pleasure over the organizing of this event following his proposal.
In the first session, expert speakers from United Nations Project Office on Governance (UNPOG), Korea Local Information Research & Development Institute (KLID), Seoul Urban Solutions Agency (SUSA) and Wellington shared how pioneering cities in the field have achieved to evolve e-government from an enhanced administrative process to connecting multi-sectors in city management for more efficient public service deliveries.
In the interactive panel discussion that followed, led by the moderator from the United Nations University Operating Unit on Policy-Driven Electronic Governance (UNU-EGOV), discussants shared their thoughts on what local governments can do to improve their e-government services for citizens, the challenges in upgrading e-government systems, and the next steps of e-government.
While several speakers emphasized the importance of building trust between local governments and citizens, both SUSA and Wellington stressed the importance of an inclusive approach to the development of e-government and the need to use creative approaches when dealing with certain citizen groups depending on their characteristics.
Regarding the challenge to adopting e-government systems at the local government level, both UNPOG and Shiraz agreed that most challenges relate to how local governments function, such as unaligned organizational goals and projects, difficulty by city officials to embrace the change and adapt their behaviors, lack of coordination and cooperation between departments.
In terms of the prospect of e-government, Samsung SDS spoke about the importance of ensuring that digital services provided by local governments are invulnerable by cyberattacks, such as ransomware attacks, especially as these have increased since the COVID-19 pandemic and cities increased dependency on digital services.
As the first event in this series, WeGO will continue to create programs related to e-government. Members with a specific interest to take part in these activities are asked to share their interest in the post-event survey or at the bottom of the official webinar page here.
Click here to watch the webinar again and download the presentation slides.