"I learned information and communications technology (ICT) and telecommunication in Korea and went back to build a one-stop system in Ethiopia that can handle many administrative tasks at once. I want to expand this system further going forward."
On the 20th at KAIST in Daejeon, Mekuria Teklemariam, Chairperson of the Ethiopian Federal Civil Service Commission, said in an interview with ChosunBiz that this was the vision for administrative innovation in his home country. A former Minister of the Ethiopian Ministry of Urban Development and Housing, he received his Ph.D. in 2020 from the KAIST Graduate School of Global IT Technology program and has since driven digital transformation in public service reform and personnel administration.
As a representative case, he pointed to Ethiopia's MESOB (Modern Ethiopian Service for Organised Benefits), similar to Korea's e-government model. MESOB is a one-stop platform that integrates multiple agency services at digital and physical counters. In its pilot phase, it bundled 12 federal agencies and 41 services to allow processing of passports, IDs, taxes, investment, telecommunications, and more in one place. Chairperson Teklemariam said, "We plan to increase the hubs handling related tasks from 36 to 200."
He said he did not learn only technology in Korea. Chairperson Teklemariam said, "Korea thinks a lot about how schools and corporations are connected and what curricula are needed to cultivate the talent corporations need," adding, "I tried to incorporate those aspects into Ethiopia's education policy." He also added, "I want to broaden Korea–Ethiopia cooperation from education and development to industries such as manufacturing to raise productivity and quality with Korea's technology and know-how."
Chairperson Teklemariam visited Korea that day to celebrate his son's graduation. His son, Nathan Mekuria Haile, graduated that day after attending Korea Science Academy and majoring in computer science at the KAIST School of Computing. Father and son thus became alumni who both studied at KAIST.
Haile said, "When my father was pursuing his Ph.D. at KAIST, I felt the research and academic environment was good, and that experience influenced my career choice," adding, "At KAIST, I liked the atmosphere of working hard and studying hard, and the culture of fair competition."
Haile said that studying at KAIST also led him to take an interest in the digitalization of administrative services. He explained, "In Ethiopia, even to obtain a single document, people often have to go from agency to agency. Procedures are fragmented, creating significant inefficiency for users," adding, "By contrast, in Korea, administration based on electronic documents is widespread, so travel and waiting expense is relatively low."
If his father built the broad framework of one-stop administration through institutions and systems, Haile intends to refine the on-the-ground operation of the system from an engineering perspective. He said, "Administrative inconvenience ultimately arises in the process of people using the system," adding, "Not only the performance of the technology but also the user experience determines the efficiency of a social system."
The field he focused on is human–computer interaction (HCI). HCI is a research area that designs and improves systems so that people can use digital systems more easily and sometimes more safely. Haile added, "KAIST has many renowned professors in HCI and offers a strong research environment," and "After completing my Ph.D. and postdoctoral (postdoc) training at KAIST, I will return to my home country and contribute to improving public services."
Chairperson Teklemariam added, "I hope my son does work that adds value wherever he is, whether at a company or at school," and "I want him to be someone who creates win-win relationships, where what comes back is more than what is invested."