Local Governments and Universities Collaborate to Build a 'Regional Innovation Platform'

The First Social Relations Ministers' Meeting of the Year ... Focused Management of Interdepartmental Collaboration Agendas

Euneh Yu, Deputy Prime Minister for Social Affairs and Minister of Education, is delivering a welcoming speech at the 1st Human Investment and Talent Development Council and the 15th Social Relations Ministers' Meeting for the Realization of an Inclusive Nation held at the Government Seoul Office in Jongno-gu, Seoul on the 11th. Photo by Hyunmin Kim kimhyun81@

[Asia Economy Reporter Jo In-kyung] The government is seeking ways for various local entities, including local governments and universities, to collaborate and support regional innovation projects and university development.

On the 17th, the Ministry of Education will hold the "1st Social Relations Ministers' Meeting for Realizing an Inclusive Nation in 2020" at the Government Seoul Office, chaired by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Education Yoo Eun-hye. In addition to the existing Social Relations Ministers' Meeting members, participants will include the Chairperson of the Korea Association of Governors, the Mayor of Daejeon Metropolitan City, the Governor of Gyeongnam Province, the Chairperson of the National Association of Provincial Education Superintendents, the President of the Korea Council for University Education, and the Chairperson of the National Council of Public University Presidents.

At this meeting, they will prepare measures to support local governments and universities in establishing and autonomously implementing regional innovation plans by building a "Regional Innovation Platform." This is a new project initiated by the Ministry of Education this year, which differs from previous university support projects by expanding the support unit from individual universities to regional units, thereby emphasizing the importance of collaboration "between regions and universities" or "among universities within a region."

In particular, the plan aims to strengthen the linkage between projects by enabling integrated management of "university support projects" and "regional innovation projects," which were previously supported individually and separately by different ministries, at the regional level.

This agenda will be finalized and announced early next week after collecting and supplementing various opinions from local government heads and university association chairpersons following the meeting.

At the same time, the meeting will discuss ways to strengthen the role and functions of the Social Relations Ministers' Meeting so that the public can clearly feel the changes.

From the perspectives of inclusion, innovation, and fairness, social issues with high public interest will be selected as planning agendas and intensively presented and managed at the Social Relations Ministers' Meeting. When social issues arise, ministries will promptly prepare integrated countermeasures and present them as ad hoc agendas. Additionally, existing agendas previously presented at the meetings will be periodically reviewed to establish supplementary measures.

To this end, a "Dedicated Task Force (TF) for Discovering Inter-Ministerial Agendas," led by the Deputy Minister of Education, will be formed to systematize agenda discovery, management, and implementation monitoring, thereby enhancing policy completeness.

Furthermore, to comprehensively review the achievements of major social policies over the past three years and present key tasks to be prioritized over the next two years along with mid- to long-term social policy directions considering future conditions of Korean society, a Social Policy Strategy Meeting chaired by the President will be held in the first half of this year.

To ensure that the public can clearly experience the outcomes of policies, a performance booklet showcasing the major achievements of social policies over the current government's three years will be published, and a forum for public participation will be established where policy consumers and experts can directly propose and suggest policies.

An official from the Ministry of Education explained, "We will develop 'Inclusive Nation Social Policy Indicators' that can show changes in people's lives and be used as basic data for policy formulation. In addition, we plan to regularly survey and analyze public perception of social policies and media trends."