The South Korean Government is planning on a next-generation “local administration common system” project worth $380 million (430 billion KRW) which will support every city and province in South Korea and tasks from cities, districts, and boroughs. Once the project passes a preliminary feasibility study this year, it is expected to be carried out starting from 2023. Because the project is expected to the biggest in size out of upcoming public projects, it is expected to gain huge interests from different industries.
“The project will receive a preliminary screening on its feasibility from the Ministry of Economy and Finance (MOEF) and is expected to go through the main part of screening starting from September at the earliest.” said one official from the Ministry of the Interior and Safety (MOIS). “Once it goes through the screening, it will be applied to next year’s budget so that it can be carried out starting from 2023.” To achieve this timeline, the MOIS recently selected Solideo Systems as the company that will be in charge of BPR (business process reengineering).
Next-generation local administration common system will restructure the “city and province administration system” that government officials from 17 metropolitan cities and provinces use and the “administration system” that government officials from 228 local city, district, and borough governments use.
The two systems have not had any upgrade since they were set up in 2004 and 2006 respectively. There are great risks with the two systems as the systems have become outdated and their software (SW) have stopped receiving support.
The MOIS plans to integrate latest technologies such as cloud, big data, and blockchain into a system that supports delocalization and realize digital local governments. Various tasks such as civil administration service and local regulatory system that are related to local administration will be digitalized. It is expected that important tasks will be made as mobile applications and create smart on-site administration services.
This project is expected to be the biggest public project in South Korean history. Even the next-generation post office financial system project, which is currently the biggest public project in the financial world, only required $180 million (206.4 billion KRW).
After going through ISMP (information system master plan), the MOIS decided that $380 million will be needed for the project. Although the ministry requested a preliminary feasibility study on the project last year with the project requiring about $530 million (600 billion KRW), its attempt was rejected. The ministry expects that it will receive a positive result from preliminary feasibility study as it is doing everything it can to be fully prepared.
Level of interests from various industries is expected to rise as the project is set to be pushed forward in two years. Because both administration systems cover a wide range of administrative tasks, capabilities of IT service providers will be very important. Because the project will be based on latest technologies such as cloud and big data, a new market will be opened from a related solution industry’s perspective.
“Once important public projects for 2021 and 2022 are completed, the local administration common system project will start to gain interests from industries.” said one official from the industry. “Key bidders will look to focus on securing public references this year in order to prepare a groundwork to win the project.”
Staff Reporter Kim, Jiseon | river@etnews.com