The inaugural meeting of the World e-Government Organization, established to reduce the information gap among the member cities and to promote a common prosperity, kicked off in Seoul on Tuesday.

Mayors and IT experts from some 50 cities participated in the two-day conference followed by a four-day forum in order to draw up the organization’s basic bylaws, said officials.

The participants also voted for Barcelona as the hosting state of the next assembly.

“The e-government system has become a crucial goal for all cities around the world,” said Seoul Mayor and first WEGO Chairman Oh Se-hoon in his opening speech.

“We hope to see cities sharing information and cooperating through information technology, to achieve common prosperity through.”

Seoul suggested back in 2008 the concept of an internatinal municipal e-government body in the World City e-Government Market Forum and was selected as the hosting city of the inaugural assembly.

The primary goal of the WEGO is for the member cities to share their e-administration systems in order to achieve a transparent and competitive local government, according to officials.

The South Korean capital was ranked first for four consecutive times ― from 2003 to last year ― in the biannual World 100 Cities’ e-Government Evaluation.

A total of 689 officials from 124 cities around the world have visited Seoul so far to learn and benchmark the city’s advanced e-government system, said officials.

“The WEGO, together with Seoul’s repuation in the e-government system, will promote the city’s brand value and drive forth the competitiveness of Korean IT companies in the global market,” said a city official.

By Bae Hyun-jung (tellme@heraldcorp.com)