Delegates from Namibia’s personnel advisory body, the Public Service Commission, visited Korea from Oct. 22-25 to benchmark the country’s online administration system and human resource management scheme.

PSC Chairperson Eddie Amkongo and Deputy Permanent Secretary Benhardt Kukuri met with officials from the Korea International Cooperation Agency, Korea Institute of Public Administration and Ministry of Security and Public Administration.

“We came to learn how the Korean government recruits its employees, distributes them across departments, and whether there is a ‘fast-track promotional mechanism,’” Amkongo said in an interview with The Korea Herald at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Seoul on Oct 24.

“We want to benchmark Korea’s advanced system in the information and communication technology for digitalizing our services.”

The PSC, a constitutional body charged with diverse human resource issues, makes appointment, assignment, remuneration and discipline recommendations to the president and high-ranking officials.

Kukuri and Amkongo said they learned a great deal about how the Korean government decided on staff promotions.

Korean government unveiled its ambitious “Government 3.0” master plan 10 years ago to optimize its service. The e-Saram electronic personnel management system cut red tape, helping Korea to secure the top place in e-governance rankings by the U.N. in 2010, 2012 and 2014.

After many ministries relocated to the new administrative capital of Sejong City in 2012, the 1 million civil servants across the country faced greater pressures to jump on the electronic bandwagon. The use of video-conferencing, smartphone applications and social networking in government affairs greatly expanded in scope.

For a government trying to enhance interconnectivities across the ministries, businesses and citizens, Korea’s “smart” undertaking was a point of sterling reference, Kukuri said. 

“Obviously Korea and Namibia are on a different learning curve but we want to put our citizens in lines, not in queues,” he added. Benchmarking Korea will also strengthen Namibia’s democracy, Kukuri said, as the launch of online voting in November will elicit greater participation in politics.

The democratically elected government of Namibia is transforming its governance structure with ICT infrastructure development as a top priority. The “Namibia Vision 2030” ― an ambitious plan to turn the country into a “knowledge-based society” ― aims to provide Internet access to the remotest parts of the country by the target year.

Mobile phone subscriptions have surged in recent years, with 7 out of 10 Namibians having cellphones. The United Nations’ E-Government Survey 2012 classified Namibia as one of the leading southern African countries in online public service.

“All the countries that have moved forward had a clear vision of where they wanted to go and drove their energy toward it,” Amkongo said. “Public service is a crucial instrument of transforming a country.”

After Namibia won its independence from South Africa through an armed struggle in 1990, the nation embarked on a mission to become a “prosperous, industrialized nation” like South Korea.

“We are molding a nation 25 years after liberation. The remnants of apartheid are still alive,” Amkongo said. “The government is playing the role of an arbiter; by leveling the playing field, bringing everyone on board.”

There were 11 “ethnic governments” based on tribal groupings, leaving the fledgling state to unify all the workers under one organ. Colonization and apartheid under German and South African dominion have divided the country along race and resource lines ― gaps the country is still closing painstakingly today.

The white people had the means of production, thus controlling the economy, Amkongo said. The challenge was to empower the blacks to run the mining, agriculture, manufacturing and tourism industries.

Amkongo stressed that redistributing the land from rich white people to poor black people was a slow process. The white minority of German and British descendants owned much of the arable land, which was plowed for commercial purposes. The disadvantaged black majority owned the much less profitable communal farmlands.

The “Willing Buyer, Willing Seller” land reform policy allowed a peaceful, moneyed transfer from the white owners to the government, and to the black people.

The government has bridged the educational divide between the whites and the blacks, Amkongo added. “We are a growing nation and our biggest budget is spent on education, particularly for those left behind by decades of segregation.”

Amkongo said Namibia could benefit greatly from Korean investments in power plants, wind and solar energies, the ICT industry and consumer goods manufacturing. With its labor-oriented production line and rich deposits of natural gas, diamonds, uranium, zinc, copper and platinum, Amkongo said Namibia presented golden opportunities for Korea’s “global resource diplomacy.”

The well-developed dry dock harbors in the Port of Walvis Bay and Port of Luderitz are gateways to the inland markets in South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Zambia and Angola, Amkongo said.

By Joel Lee (joel@heraldcorp.com)