National Assembly urged to accelerate digital transformation

Ruling Democratic Party Chairman Rep. Lee Nak-yon delivers a speech at a plenary session of the National Assembly, Sept. 7. According to relevant laws which require lawmakers to be present at sessions, they gathered at the plenary chamber despite concerns of COVID-19 infection. Protective screens have been installed between every seat. Yonhap

By Jung Da-min

September to November is the busiest time of the year for lawmakers. Meetings are held day after day during this period, with the opening of the National Assembly's annual regular session in September, followed by the Assembly's annual audit of government departments in October and inspection of the government budget for next year in November.

Concerns are rising, however, over possible setbacks in this year's legislative activities, as the Assembly is facing an unprecedented crisis due to the COVID-19 situation. The entire Assembly compound has already undergone temporary shutdowns three times so far ― once in late February, once late last month and again early this month. Partial shutdowns for some Assembly facilities have also been implemented several times over the period.

For the political parties, their leaders have often been self-quarantined at home to abide by government guidelines for those who have come into contact with COVID-19 patients. To cope with the circumstances, they have adopted remote working systems and held some party meetings online.

Seminars and conferences that were planned to be held at the Assembly compound have also been canceled or replaced by online seminars and conferences in line with the government's quarantine guidelines.

Political watchers say such efforts are insufficient and the Assembly should further accelerate its digital transformation by enabling online legislative activities such as proposing bills through an online system, holding meetings online and voting for bills digitally. They say such a transformation is necessary to prevent further disruptions to the Assembly's schedule.

Rep. Lee Young of the main opposition People Power Party, bottom right, a former ICT expert, holds an online meeting with her aides in this photo provided by her office, Aug. 27. Courtesy of office of Rep. Lee Young

Hurdles remain, however, for the Assembly's digitization, as the legislative body's major meetings including plenary sessions still require lawmakers to attend the sessions physically, according to relevant laws and regulations.

According to articles of the National Assembly Act, the speaker shall declare the title of a bill to be put to vote, and announce the vote result, at the speaker' seat, and lawmakers should be present in the chamber at the time of voting.

Some lawmakers of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK), including Rep. Jo Seoung-lae, proposed an amendment to the National Assembly Act to introduce a contact-free online system for major Assembly meetings, but it faced opposition from other lawmakers who cited possible side effects such as the system being abused for other political purposes or security-related issues.

Lawmakers and experts attend an online seminar on digital transformation of the National Assembly hosted by the National Assembly Secretariat, Sept. 3. Courtesy of National Assembly Secretariat

Digital technology experts, however, point out introducing online legislative systems is unavoidable in the era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, and the COVID-19 situation is only accelerating the inevitable task.

They say introducing artificial intelligence (AI) technologies as part of the Assembly's digital transformation would also help Assembly staff to save time, with such AI systems carrying out repetitive administrative duties such as sorting out documents or tracking media coverage for lawmakers' legislative activities.

Kim Ju-ho, associate professor of the School of Computing at KAIST, said introducing an "AI intern" at lawmakers' offices could be a good way to encourage digital transformation.

"For example, an AI system could collect a wide range of data for a lawmaker to draw a proposal for a bill. It could also track media coverage of a lawmaker so the lawmaker could better deal with responses to their legislative activities," Kim said. "If such repetitive tasks, which are now being done manually by aides of lawmakers, are done by AI technologies, aides and staff at lawmakers' offices could focus on more creative and efficient works."

Kim said that introducing AI technologies for documenting legislative activities including recording meetings would also help the Assembly access quality data that could be processed easily with data analysis software tools.

"Legislative activities at the Assembly are technically open to the public but it has not been easy for the public to access or utilize recordings or data of them. For example, minutes of the Assembly meetings are provided in pdf or hwp file formats and they require manual work to be sorted and processed with other data analysis tools," Kim said.

Experts say the current COVID-19 situation is a crisis but it also offers new opportunities for digital transformation of the Assembly which could further promote democracy in legislative activities. Online meetings in which participants can express their opinions more freely through online chat was cited as an example.

"Holding Assembly meetings online could also help lawmakers to express their own opinions with their own stance more freely and independently especially when they cast their votes, as they would feel less pressured by other party members than when they have to be in the same meeting room for such a vote," said Ko Kyung-kon, head of the Korea Internet Professional Association.

While the Assembly's secretariat launched a taskforce for digital transformation recently, it is a temporary organization that will be disbanded after a couple of months. But Ko said the Assembly's digital transformation is not a task that could be completed in a short period of months but requires years of accumulating experience and could face some failures that happen when introducing new technologies.

"The Assembly's digital transformation requires tremendous efforts. Long-term projects for three to five years, for example, are required to accumulate experience through trials and failures. Establishing a control tower for the transformation with a longer time frame is needed at this moment," Ko said.

Ko said Korea has already acquired great digital technologies in many sectors and the Assembly is urged to establish strategies to integrate them efficiently.

"The first step would be defining the main user of the digital system, whether it would be lawmakers, their aides, Assembly secretariat officials or the public. For the case of the U.K. parliament, it has set the public as the main user of the digital parliament services, and live broadcasting of all of meetings held at the parliament is one of its major tasks," Ko said.

"The Assembly's digital transformation would suggest a lot to other sectors with the symbolic meaning of the Assembly. It is urged to set long-term strategies for three to five years, which could also help the digitization of other sectors in the country by creating a precedent."