Overhauling Fiscal Evaluation and Easing Public AI Regulations After 20 Years... Ministry of Planning and Budget Honors 8 Outstanding Proactive Officials

Outstanding Proactive Administration Cases Awarded for the First Half of 2026

Overhaul of Integrated Fiscal Evaluation and Rapid Introduction of Public AI Services

The “problem solvers” at the Ministry of Planning and Budget—who have completely overhauled the framework of national fiscal evaluation, entrenched for 20 years, and swiftly devised support grants for public livelihoods amid the oil shock driven by the Middle East conflict—have been honored with awards.

Minister of Strategy and Finance Hongkeun Park speaking at the ruling party-government meeting on the 13th. Photo by Yonhap News.

On July 16, the Ministry announced that it had hosted the “Outstanding Proactive Public Officials Awards for the First Half of 2026.” At this ceremony, eight outstanding officials were recognized: four “Proactive Administration Stars” who enhanced public engagement by improving policies and systems, and four “Proactive Administration IN-Stars” who drove departmental work efficiency and artificial intelligence transformation (AX).

The grand prize was awarded to the case of “Integrated Fiscal Project Performance Evaluation,” which, after 20 years, fundamentally restructured the obsolete evaluation system to reflect changing times and established a robust foundation for expenditure restructuring. Additionally, an award for excellence went to the swift arrangement of the “High Oil Price Damage Support Grant” in response to the outbreak of the Middle East conflict, as well as to the comprehensive overhaul of the “Participatory Budgeting System.” The commendation award was presented to the case of boldly expanding the exemption scope for the Information Strategy Plan (ISP) to expedite the introduction of public AI services.

Furthermore, four cases—including the first-ever deployment of commercial AI within an internal work network by a government ministry, dramatically increasing work efficiency, and the activities of the innovation-leading group “Vision X”—were selected as outstanding cases in the work innovation and publicity category (IN-Star).

Minister of Planning and Budget Park Hongkeun said, “In the face of a rapidly changing economic and social environment and the AI transformation, it is more important than ever for public officials to take creative and proactive approaches to their work.” He emphasized, “Let us continue to actively identify and solve problems from the people’s perspective through proactive administration, so that we can consistently deliver policy outcomes that the public can truly experience.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.