Public Organizations'
Innovation Improved

Korea Highway Corp., KEPCO receive highest innovation stage ranking

Public organizations generally made headway in reforming the way they conduct management activities, but they are showing signs of a large gap among them. A great majority of surveyed organizations are still at the initial or immature stage of innovation, according to a recently unveiled survey.
The outcome of a 2005 management survey of 210 public organizations, conducted and recently released by the Ministry of Planning and Budget, indicated that the average organization rose 0.6 notches from Level 2.5 in 2005 to Level 3.1, with the number of organizations rated at Level 4 or higher soaring from 34 or 16 percent to 84 or 40 percent, showing signs of improvement.
Korea Highway Corporation and Korea Electric Power Corp. were given the highest, coming in at Level 6 among the surveyed organizations, followed by Level 5 earners that included KOTRA, Korea Land Corp., Korea Development Bank, Industrial Bank of Korea, Korea Credit Guarantee Fund, Korea Railroad Corp., Korea Agro-Fisheries Trade Corp. and Korea Housing Guarantee.
Classified in the Level 4 category were Korea National Housing Corp., Korea National Oil Corp., National Health Insurance Corp., National Pension Service, Korea Technology Fund, Korea Deposit Insurance Corp., Korea Gas Safety Corp., Korea Institute of Industrial Technology Evaluation and Planning.
MPB said 126 or 40 percent of the surveyed organizations remained at Level 1 through Level 3, at the initial, immature stage of innovation. However, the overall innovation levels of public organizations improved somewhat as the portion of public organizations rated to be Level 4 or higher increased from 16 percent to 40 percent.
Kim Yong-jin, director of MPB's Public Innovation & Planning Team, said, "public organizations'average innovation level rose from Level 2.5 to Level 3.1. Innovation levels are determined according to 10 percent of management assessment points each public organization gets, so the higher innovation level, the higher performance payment each public organization receives."Korea Highway Corp., which was given the highest innovation category of Level 6, has been credited with having set up an innovation system based on consensus among the executives and staff members, despite management issues like the Haengdam Island development scandal.
KEPCO was also given the highest innovation mark in recognition of developing an innovation program into a brand. In particular, the utility giant upgraded its innovation activities by designating 700 tasks the company will implement by the year 2007. nw

Minister of Planning & Budget Chang Byung-wan