Ministry of the Interior and Safety Publishes '2020 Top 100 Government Innovation Cases'

Selected 100 Cases Through Expert Review... Categorized by Three Major Government Innovation Areas: Social Value, Participation and Cooperation, and Trusted Government

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Cheol-young] A booklet containing government innovation cases that brought positive changes to the daily lives of the people has been published.

On the 20th, the Ministry of the Interior and Safety announced that it has published the 2020 Government Innovation Top 100 Cases booklet titled "Government Innovation is Improving the Lives of the People" to spread cases that helped improve the lives of the people through government-wide innovation efforts.

Over the past year, the Ministry selected the top 100 cases through expert evaluation from various competitions and cases that innovated residents' lives, categorizing them into three major government innovation sectors: social value, participation and cooperation, and trusted government.

Among the outstanding cases evaluated at last year's Government Innovation Excellence Integrated Competition were "Eliminating Accidents by Improving Safety Blind Spots (Fire Agency)" and "Stopping the Microplastic Backlash (Korea Environment Corporation)." The Fire Agency used "GIS spatial analysis" on accident-prone areas such as traffic, falls, and drowning to identify risk factors in advance and implemented fundamental accident prevention measures such as installing guides and maintaining roads and water depths. The Korea Environment Corporation created an "ice pack reuse system" in collaboration with residents, local governments, and civic groups, providing ice packs free of charge to the livestock industry and traditional markets to resolve environmental pollution caused by ice pack disposal.

Additionally, cases that received high public response in the "2020 Government Innovation Evaluation" citizen perception category included "Rapid Payment of Emergency Disaster Relief Funds (Ministry of the Interior and Safety)" and "Agricultural Produce Packages (Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs)." The Ministry of the Interior and Safety coordinated with central government, local governments, and private credit card companies to quickly distribute emergency disaster relief funds to all citizens (22.16 million households) within four months without separate systems or complicated procedures, supporting the stabilization of citizens' lives and economic recovery amid COVID-19 difficulties. The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs collaborated with the Ministry of Education and local governments to provide "agricultural produce packages" to student households (about 5.3 million) whose school meals were suspended, easing parents' food expenses and supporting the recovery of farms affected by COVID-19.

Other cases with high local resident satisfaction included "Walk-Through, a Miracle Created by the Spirit and Creativity to Overcome COVID-19 (Nam-gu, Busan)" and "We Take Care of Sick Children Instead of Mom and Dad (Nowon-gu, Seoul)." Nam-gu, Busan, developed its own "two-way Walk Through Booth" that minimizes contact between medical staff and patients, enabling efficient COVID-19 testing, reducing testing time and costs, and exporting 327 units to Japan, Russia, and Thailand. Nowon-gu, Seoul, provided a service where a care teacher visits the child’s location upon a phone call, accompanies them to the hospital, guides medication intake, and supports their return home, alleviating the difficulties faced by working parents in accompanying their sick children to medical appointments.

The Ministry of the Interior and Safety plans to distribute the casebook to 487 institutions including central government ministries, local governments, and public institutions to share and spread excellent government innovation cases. It also plans to provide the materials in various formats and methods such as on the Ministry of the Interior and Safety and Government Innovation 1st Street websites, and e-books at large bookstores like Kyobo Bookstore, to make it easier for the public to access these excellent cases.

Minister Jeon Hae-cheol said, "This book contains the efforts and achievements of government innovation realized through cooperation and communication with the people in their daily lives," and added, "I hope that the publication of this casebook will help accelerate the pace of change and innovation."