Korea and Spain agreed to enhance cooperation in the development of electronic governance systems.

A group of Spanish congressmen, led by their Congress of Deputies Deputy Speaker Jordi Vilajoana, met with Park Myung-Jae, Korea's Minister of Government Administration and Home Affairs, on April 11 to discuss ways to share information and knowledge, including exchanging public sector human resources and tapping into private sector know-how on systems development.

The visit comes as part of the agreement between the two governments to cooperate in the information technology and electronic governance fields which was fleshed out during Korean President Roh Moo-hyun's visit to Spain in February.

Minister Park briefed the delegates on the current state of Korea's electronics governance system and stressed that Korea is also working hard to innovate other government policies and laws as well.

The Spanish delegation said they were particularly impressed by the very high rate of Internet penetration across the country and the various online systems that enable citizens to file tax reports, apply for state exams and print government-issued documents with one stop.

Seoul has been pushing its e-governance initiative since 2002 with the goal of narrowing the information gap between cities and provincial towns and improving communication between public administration, citizens and businesses.

Korea's e-governance capability was rated number 1 among 198 nations by an annual survey by Brown University in the U.S. last year. Meanwhile, Spain has launched its so-called “Plan Avanza” project to advance its electronic system.