The government will push to introduce a so-called "smart work" system in an effort to tackle the country's low labor productivity, low birth rate and other pending issues, officials said Tuesday.
The envisioned system will allow public servants and private employees to work anytime and anywhere by using the Internet, smartphones and remote office centers in suburban areas.
In line with the plan reported to President Lee Myung-bak, the government will make all public servants and about 30 percent of the country's private workforce subject to the new work system by 2015, according to the officials.
Under the smart work system, civil servants and private employees will be permitted to work at home, carry out their duties on the move using
smartphones or report to remote office centers, they said.
The adoption of the new work system is expected to create new jobs, especially for women and senior citizens, according to the officials.
The government will spend 234.1 billion won (US$194.2 million) on building necessary infrastructure, including enhancing the speed of the Internet and deploying wireless-fidelity (WiFi) nationwide.
For every 8.6 million of office workers participating in the project, remote office centers will cut 1.11 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions per year, according to a government forecast. It will also save 1.6 trillion won worth of transportation fees annually.
The government estimates that 90 minutes of daily commutes and 340,000 won worth of transportation fees will be saved for every employee.
South Korea is the world's most wired nation, with 27 million people out of its population of 49 million population having access to the high-speed Internet. Nine out of 10 South Koreans own a cell phone.