Seoul Metropolitan Government will open its key meetings to the public via the Internet to promote citizen’s participation in policy making, officials said Monday.

Almost 100 kinds of meetings of city government and affiliated committees and organizations will be shown on Internet broadcasting channels or video files.

The move is part of Mayor Park Won-soon’s pledge to enhance communication with citizens and transparency in city affairs, Hwang Bo-yeon, director of planning division, said.

“We expect the open meetings can increase transparency and ensure the democratic process of our policy making. We will continue to pursue open communication with citizens,” said Hwang.

So far, all city government meetings have been kept secret due to “concern over violation of fairness in policy making” during previous administrations, officials said.

From May, key policy meetings of the city government will be broadcast online or the minutes will be available on the city government website.

High-level official meetings presided over by the mayor will be available at the city government website at tv.seoul.go.kr and private online TV channels such as afreeca TV and olleh TV, starting with a deputy district mayor meeting on Thursday.

Committee meetings’ minutes will be disclosed on the city government website from May 3.

The municipality also plans to prepare the legal groundwork for open meetings by setting standards for deciding which meetings will be made open based on the U.S.’ “Government in the Sunshine Act” passed in 1976 to open meetings of governmental agencies to the public.

By Lee Woo-young  (wylee@heraldcorp.com)