South Korea’s Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning is revealing the secrets of its successful digital transformation to developing countries. This is in the framework of world Bank Democracy Development Program (DDP) forum held in Seoul on October 15-19, 2018. The forum that gathers 40 representatives of 25 countries including some people from the Smart Africa Alliance countries, will provide developing countries with an opportunity to learn from South Korea and realize their development via ICT.

Thanks to strategic public-private partnerships and an aggressive Technology policy, South Korea has been one of the most advanced countries in terms of digital governance for many years now. In the 2018 E-Government Development Index (EGDI), the United Nations ranked it as the third, after Denmark and Australia. Its telecommunication infrastructures development rate, online services, and citizens participation online are high.   

Even in the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) 2017 ranking of the ICT development index, South Korea was the second (behind Iceland), among 176 nations. It has a high mobile, broadband, ICT learning at school and competence rate.

On October 15, 2018, at the launch of the DDP forum, Boutheina Guermazi (photo), Practice Manager for Information and Communication Technologies for World Bank, told participating countries that the World Bank was ready to support them in their digital transformation and help them build digital economies.