During the previous administration, the Cabinet avidly promoted transparency and participation. But that transparency and participation didn’t always relate to practical implementation and public benefits. In the past, the government depended on stakeholders with expertise in law or data, while excluding stakeholders with expertise rooted in individual experience or local ...

The “open government” concept in Taiwan has four pillars: Transparency, Participation, Accountability and Inclusion.

In the Taiwan government, from the very beginning, we have done our best to transform the processes and procedures for communicating with the public, and share that with the world as best we can. We thank Korea for sharing their experiences to date, and are very interested in continuing our ...

Organizations like the Internet Engineering Task Force and the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers are frameworks with multiple stakeholders. They’re not affiliated with the U.N., and aren’t managed by any particular government. They operate based on communication with stakeholders and transparent procedures, so developers around the world trust ...

In Taiwan, on the other hand, public funding is generally allocated to hire academics and experts to implement plans. In the course of a year, each city can only choose three or four projects, but there is no funding or budget to do anything beyond that. Does Korea have a ...

In France, an independent authority called the National Commission for Public Debate (Commission nationale du débat public) pushed for a law in 2002 requiring that any development project receiving a certain level of funding must devote a specific percentage of its construction funding to service design. This involves bringing related ...

The biggest problem is that people aren’t used to waiting for a year or a year-and-a-half before discussions produce a plan that everyone can accept. So the development process is always criticized by people who are looking for efficiency. Is that the way it is in Korea?

In Taiwan, we have a kind of regional design called “co-design” or “co-planning.” This is an important concept for mayors in many cities, who want to find a way to get residents to participate in the design process for urban renewal or urban planning, letting people discuss things during public ...

The government’s promotional strategy is just to use AI in tasks where the outcome is the same regardless of who performs the task. Examples include typing out what someone is saying, or retrieving research—no matter who is involved, the only difference is speed, and no personal value judgment is required. ...

We’re now considering using machine learning and AI to do that, like in foreign countries, where AI is being used to find precedents for many legal issues. To resolve issues surrounding the use of natural language, the government has already set up a test lab to research this issue. Does ...

When government data is, in principle, made open to the public, the volume of data is incredible. It’s not just numerical data; it also includes written information like official documents, reports, and supporting materials attached to those reports. But when most citizens utilize that information, they don’t know what government ...

In Taiwan, the biggest attitude adjustment for government organizations is letting go of so-called “face” issues. Sometimes, when things don’t go well, the media will use information that was made public as grounds for criticism. But we feel that making such information public is the only way to invite public ...

When we make spending information public, we also record the related tender bid information. Currently, the government wants to make all the information public, including the bid-winning vendor’s proposal, as well as the mid-term and final reports. Does Korea also do it that way?

The graphics show information for specific bureaus and departments, but people can click on any of the individual items and leave messages there.

This budget.taipei website is still in use. After successful testing in 2015, this website was used to upload all budgets to the city council in Excel format starting in 2016.

Minister without Portfolio Audrey Tang previously served as an external expert to Taipei City in 2015 to make the budget system more visual. The bureaus and departments were very resistant at the outset, but after some education and training, they asked their staff to reply to hundreds of online questions ...

This website doesn’t have a reward or penalty function, but lining up all the agencies for comparison does create a psychological effect, and they have to respond to online questions from the public.

The third is “Supervise.” The Executive Yuan requires government agencies to disclose how much money they spend on projects. This section uses graphics to show the amount spent on each project on a monthly basis, the progress, and what public tenders have been issued.

The second is “Talk.” In principle, government agencies must announce all proposed legislation on this platform in advance to allow 60 days for public discussion. If the public finds problems or difficulties with a piece of legislation, it can be blocked or sent back for redrafting.

Taiwan has a public policy participation platform (join.gov.tw) consisting of three sections: The first is “Propose,” where any policy proposal that gathers 5,000 signatures must be discussed among government agencies and responded to.

How effective is the supervision? What if they don’t reach their goals?

What is the relationship between the Government 3.0 Committee and government agencies? Can the committee assign tasks to agencies directly, or is there a contact window? Do you hold meetings to coordinate and solve problems? How frequently? And is there a reward/penalty system?

Does Korea model its public service reforms on similar programs in other countries? What are some specific objectives over the next one to three years for reforming administrative efficiency?

The PDIS has hired a consultant with work experience at the U.K. Policy Lab to study ideas from the U.K. Civil Service Reform program, inject “design thinking” into Taiwan’s government processes and data-driven policy, and bring all agencies together in the decision-making process. This “participation officer” is being promoted by ...

Regarding public service reform and electronic systems, are these capabilities you look for when hiring civil servants or something they receive training for after being hired? And how do you promote this kind of thinking in the more senior civil servants? Third, what role does Government 3.0 play?

Second, the Freedom of Government Information Law stipulates that an official document that has not yet been approved—even a document drafted by a department director—may not be disclosed before it has been approved, unless disclosure is necessary and in the public’s interest. Does Korea have this kind of restriction?

First, many of the documents are paper copies. Without very good scanning or artificial intelligence (AI) recognition software, it may be difficult to release documents in a way that the public can easily use, and the documents usually come in image file formats. How does Government 3.0 address this?

Questions:

Taiwan passed the Freedom of Government Information Law in 2005: On one hand, a member of the public may ask the government for information concerning himself or herself—what we call “my data” or “portable data”—but not information on other people. On the other hand, the government should take the initiative ...

Korea’s Government 3.0 initiative has earned high praise from the U.N., the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, and the World Economic Forum (WEF). What have you done in recent years to enable civil servants to release government data as they’re doing their work, rather than releasing the data separately ...

Taiwan’s Digital Minister without Portfolio is a new Cabinet position created to promote open government. Using internationally recognized methods, we are promoting open data to increase government transparency, encourage public participation, and create records that will hold government accountable in the policy-making process. We also want to encourage people who ...