Considerations for the Effective National CDO Policy: A Comparative Analysis on the Governance of Major Countries

Introduction

Recently, data has been used as a key to national and social innovation to revitalize the digital economy to transform nations and societies. In Korea, the data market size, which was 15.5684 trillion won in 2018, grew at a CAGR (Compound Annual Growth Rate) of more than 11.3% to 19.2736 trillion won in 2020 (“Ministry of Science and ICT, Korea Data Agency”, 2020). Companies that make data-driven decisions have seen productivity gains of 5-6% more than those that do not, and with big companies also acquiring data companies or startups, traditional industries will be on the verge of transitioning to digital-based industries. In 2022, the newly inaugurated Yoon Suk-Yeol government announced on May 3 the direction of the “Digital Platform Government's initiative” to improve healthcare, administration, and epidemic management services by combining big data and AI technologies (Digital Platform Government TF in 20^th Presidential Transition Committee, 2022). This is not simply a policy change following an imminent bandwagon. Governments of all time have been building IT infrastructure since the '60s and leading IT strategy as a state-led industry, which can be understood in the context of (1) the construction of digital infrastructure, (2) the strategy of digital transformation for economic growth, and (3) digital transformation as political and social innovation. As evidenced by the United Nations' e-Government Assessment, the OECD's Public Data Assessment, and the Digital Government Assessment for the first time in 2020, governments have built the world's leading e-government and ICT infrastructure through rapid informatization & digitalization at the national center based on a solid commitment to initiative (Rivera Perez et al, 2020; OECD, 2020; Ubaldi, 2020). In addition, the global COVID-19 crisis is spurring digital transformation. Transforming nations, societies, and organizations with data-driven digital capabilities is seen as a competition for survival in the age of the digital economy.

The race for survival around data starts with governance issues that make it clear who will drive data-driven national innovation. For example, the United States has established the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) under the Office of the President, the United Kingdom has assigned digital innovation affairs to the Department of Culture, Media and Sports (DCMS) and the Digital Government Service (DGS) under the Cabinet Office, and Japan has established the Digital Administration. In such a situation, Korea also established a special committee on data at the 4th Industrial Revolution Committee, which seeks to establish data governance at the national level, and has enacted the “Act on the Promotion of Data-Based Administration” so that each department and institution have data-based administrative responsibilities.

As the CDO system is an emerging policy currently underway, attempts to organize concepts or establish a system for CDO in each country continue. Therefore, the concept of the CDO organization has often not been clearly established. Accordingly, what this study aims to analyze are a nation which already established a data strategy and implemented it in public agencies and each institution. So the target countries for the analysis are Korea, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Japan where digitalization and data based decision making in political area is prior than any political agenda. This study will suggest consideration for ensuring the effectiveness of national CDO operation through the analysis of (1) the contextual meaning and operating basis of CDO, (2) roles and functions, (3) recruitment methods, (4) status and authority, (5) organizational composition, (6) evaluation plans and performance indicators in those countries.