By Na Jeong-ju
Staff Reporter
The administration plans to build a network of Korean communities around the world by 2012 to help them share information and boost exchanges, the Prime Minister's Office said Tuesday.
The measure is part of the country's efforts to prepare for an absentee voting system ― which is scheduled to debut for the 2012 general elections ― for some 2.5 million overseas Koreans.
This year, the government will set up a database that includes personal information about overseas community leaders and key facts about business associations and political organizations run by Koreans abroad, the office said.
"It's strategically important to increase support for overseas Koreans for national growth in the era of globalization," Prime Minister Chung Un-chan said during a policy coordination meeting. "We should focus on developing better policies for them to reflect the growing interest in Korea worldwide and the country's rising global status."
The government has formed a panel of seven experts from the private sector and 12 senior officials to suggest various policies on strengthening communication between 7 million overseas Koreans and their mother nation.
Some of the measures being discussed are providing scholarships to talented Koreans abroad; initiating cultural exchange programs for young people; helping overseas Koreans get jobs in Korea, in a bid to address the decreasing workforce here; and strengthening economic ties with Korean communities.
This year, the government will launch projects aimed at helping ethnic Koreans in Japan win the right to vote in Japanese elections and initiate agricultural technology exchange programs with ethnic Koreans in Russia and China.
The administration also plans to hold a mock absentee election in the latter half of this year in some 10 countries across the world in preparation for the 2012 elections.
The Constitutional Court ruled in 2007 that it was unconstitutional to restrict the suffrage of Korean nationals living abroad in 2007, paving the way for some 2.5 million citizens to vote from overseas.