Jakarta. Indonesia and South Korea are bolstering their partnership in e-government.

The State Apparatus and Bureaucratic Reforms Ministry recently teamed up with Korea's Ministry of the Interior and Safety (MoIS) and the National Information Society Agency (NIA) hosted a digital government cooperation forum. The discussions centered on their partnership for 2023 and the upcoming year. This year also marks the golden anniversary of Indonesia-Korea's ties.

"This strong bond is supported by how our resources and excellences complement one another, in addition to our robust economic and political ties. And this has opened up more rooms for partnership to thrive across different sectors," Bureaucratic Reforms Minister Abdullah Azwar Anas was quoted as saying in a recent press statement.

In 2023, the two countries are working on the development of a digital ID. They are also developing a digitalization strategy that aims to eradicate poverty. The DGCC Committee proposed that both countries should explore cooperation on developing a smart government in Indonesia's new capital Nusantara for next year.

"The proposal includes the use of big data and artificial intelligence [AI] in government administration as well as open source-based tech design in services," Anas said.

According to Anas, Indonesia's digital transformation is on track as it could expedite development.

"We will continue to work on interoperability of systems and applications for integrated services nationwide. But we have to keep on learning the best practices from various nations, particularly Korea, to strengthen the digital transformation in Indonesia," Anas said.

NIA President Jong Sung Hwang pledged to continue to support Indonesia's e-government.

"Back then, the South Korean government had 17,060 systems that worked in silos. But they have all integrated all these systems into one," Jong Sung Hwang said.