ROK Shares its Digital Personnel Management Experience with LAC Countries
 - Introducing e-Saram and online training systems to IDB

The Republic of Korea (ROK) plans to introduce the process of transitioning its personnel administration services to a digital platform and share with Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) countries its preemptive response to the “new norm”* of the post COVID-19 era.”
  * Refers to the new means of carrying out daily life as a result of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
  - On 26 October, the ROK Ministry of Personnel Management (MPM, Minister Hwang Seo-chong) and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) announced that they will be holding a joint "International Webinar on ROK's Digital Human Resources Management (HRM)" on 29 October.
  - IDB was first formally established in 1959 as a regional development bank that supports economic and social development, free trade, and unification across LAC countries through loans and technical cooperation. ROK joined as a non-borrowing member of IDB in 2005.

This webinar is being held at the request of IDB to share Korea’s experience in public personnel management, including digital HRM, reflecting the demands of LAC nations, such as the Dominican Republic and Uruguay.
  - ROK's national experience in digital personnel management and online training as a preemptive response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has been receiving attention from not only LAC nations, but also from New Northern and New Southern countries.

ROK MPM's Electronic Human Resource Management System, "e-Saram", is a system that electronically manages the human resources, payroll, performance evaluation, education and training, and tasks of public officials. During this upcoming event, the main functions, success factors, implications, and establishment costs of the system will be introduced.
  - The first iteration of e-Saram was established in 2000 and later transitioned to a next-generation, cloud-based system in 2011-2012. Even today, the system is constantly evolving to utilize Robotic Processing Automation (RPA) in payroll processes.
  - During this upcoming webinar, case studies on the implementation of e-Saram as part of COVID-19 response and other main points of interest among LAC nations will be discussed.

Details will also be shared on ROK's experiences with its government e-learning platform and other online education tools as a result of the expansion in remote learning due to difficulties with in-house education in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. MPM will also share the contents of its online human resources development platform, which is currently in development.
  - To promote meaningful exchange and cooperation in the field of personnel management, IDB member states participating in the webinar will have the opportunity to pose questions and share their opinions on issues related to “daily life in the post-COVID-19 era.”

In addition to this upcoming webinar, ROK MPM has held approximately 20 other online meetings and seminars with international organizations and the respective personnel management agencies of key cooperating nations* on trends in public personnel management, including digital transformation; recruitment- and service-related experiences in response to COVID-19; and ethics and performance management systems.
  * OECD; World Bank; New Southern Nations, including the Philippines; and New Northern Nations, including Mongolia and Kazakhstan
  - ROK MPM is constantly making efforts to expand and develop opportunities for exchange and cooperation within the international community and to actively explore opportunities for cooperative projects in personnel management, such as joint research with the OECD, IDB, and other international organizations.

ROK MPM Vice Minister Kim Woo Ho stated that efforts are being made to strengthen exchange and cooperation in the field of public personnel management through remote methods, such as webinars, in response to the new norm of the post-COVID era, which makes it difficult for in-person exchanges. He added that steps are also being taken to promote signing of MOUs and implementation of Overseas Development Assistance (ODA) projects in the field of public personnel management.
  - Vice Minister Kim also stated that the ROK MPM will continue to promote Korea’s public personnel management systems through various forms of international exchange and cooperation and establish platforms that can explore measures for mutual exchange.