Country Report Overview

Introduction

History

Asia Regional Information Center as one of research centers at Asia Center has been working on the production of country reports since early 2019. The country report project has presently covered over 20 countries in South East and middle East Asia, Africa and South America. To expand the contents of country reports and experts network, the center has cooperated with the SNU Global R&DB center.

Definition

The country report is a broad range of information about a country’s current situation written by a team of experts, including public officials of a nation and regional and subject matter experts at Seoul National University.

Purposes

1. The collection and distribution of national information: 1) experts’ information about national main conditions and indicators, 2) major administrative, policy and latest issues, 3) current situation and developmental process regarding sustainable development goals, and 4) ICT situation, policies and infrastructure
2. The expansion of experts’ network: public officials from other countries, regional experts and related government officials
3. The timely findings of urgent issues and the publication of issues papers through the working process of data collection and the country report
4. The enhancement of international cooperation between South Korean and other countries based on comprehensive and recent information about countries and cooperative network between academics and public agencies

The country report is composed of three major parts: national review, public administration and sustainable development goals. Each part consists of various related subjects described with experts’ summary, main indicators, statistical data/analysis and current issues. As another major part, ICT country reports produced by the SNU Global R&DB center will be included. Lastly, the country report covers the recent significant and urgent policies of each country to provide more detailed and timely information about a country’s situation.

Methodology

Online co-working

regional experts and public officials from other countries co-working on data collection and writing through google drive, unlimited by time and space

Data collection and database construction

data from international institutions such as UN, World Bank, OECD, IMF, ITU and ICPSR, and each country’s domestic institutions; Data clarification for standardized database and analysis; the identification of differences between international and domestic data to prevent any possible misunderstanding of the country

The principles of using statistics for indicators

(reference: Statistics Denmark)

Statistical presentation: statistical data produced for each section’s indicators and based on comparative research on both international and domestic data
Statistical processing: API-based automatic data extraction from open data sources and manual processing by the center’s data analysists
Relevance: relevant data for subjects and users’ needs and satisfaction
Accuracy and reliability: the provision of high quality data with constant quality control and openness to public feedback
Timeliness and punctuality: importance on final figures without delay for updates
Comparability: standardized data for international comparison
Accessibility and clarity: data and reports uploading on the center’s homepage and uploaded contents published on the bulletin board of the homepage; written in English for global users; open data accessibility and reproduction only for individual and instructional uses, not commercial, with the source citation of Asia Regional Information Center at Asia Center, SNU

Quality Control

constant feedback and communication between the project staff, regional experts and public officials; periodical country report workshop for the cross-checking and sharing of each country’s working process; country/regional experts’ consultation; peer review process

Sharing in public

academic and practical conferences open to the public; constant data and reports uploading on the center’s homepage

National review

National main conditions and indicators: geography and demography, economy, trade and industry, infrastructure, welfare and poverty, health, education and human development, society and culture, environment, and national security and safety
International cooperation with South Korea

Issues in Public Administration and governance

Political structure, the constitution of government, personne managementl, performance management, budget management, local administration and decentralization, public sector reforms, NGO and civil society, and major research institutes

Major policy issues

Different major policy issues in each country

Sustainable development goals

17 SDGs (no poverty, zero hunger, good health and well-being, quality education, gender equality, clean water and sanitation, affordable and clean energy, decent work and economic growth, industry, innovation and infrastructure, reduced inequalities, sustainable cities and communities, responsible consumption and production, climate action, life below water, life on land, peace, justice and string institutions, and parternerships for the goals) and each country
Major challenges

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