Government offices to deliver papers online

Beginning next July all citizens can request official papers and receive them on the internet without paying a visit to government agencies.

Civil servants will be required to provide online service to inform the public of all matters affecting them, such as laws, regulations, procedures and standards adopted by administrative offices.

The Ministry of Government Administration and Home Affairs Tuesday reported that it is preparing a bill worthy of a cyber-government to offer extensive and open information and prompt online service to citizens. The law aims to lay the groundwork for such a governmental infrastructure by consolidating laws and regulations of various government departments into a system conducive to the age of information and knowledge industry, benefiting the public even more.

Under the proposed scheme administrative offices will have to erect an adequate system for electronic processing of officials papers requested by or addressed to citizens. These documents would be issued upon confirmation of electronic signature of the applicant and delivered online upon receipt of specified fees. Citizens will no longer be asked to prepare and present papers, which can be duplicated and referred to by computers.

Most official papers will be electronically recorded without using paper; cyber-paper processing windows at each administrative agency will operate in conjunction with the central cyber-paper center. The draft law is to promote shared utilization of administrative information while restraining overlapping collection of information. Use of private information against the will of the person concerned will be prohibited.

Choi Sung-Jin choi@donga.com