Nowadays public bodies in Korea play an important role in the national economy, and their influence on national economy is gradually increasing. Even though the government is trying to open information about public bodies through the Public Bodies Management Information Opening System, it is still hard to acquire significant information that is necessary in the legislative deliberation because lots of manipulations are still needed to produce useful information from the information system. The purpose of issuing 'A Handbook of Public Bodies' is to provide the National Assembly with essential and useful information on public bodies systematically.

The contents of this handbook are as follows. First, the concept, category, the number of executives and employees of public bodies are included in this handbook. Second, several financial informations such as revenues and expenditures, assets and debts, total revenues and total costs are also included in this handbook. Third, detailed explanation of relevant laws, systems with regard to the operation of public bodies is also contained in this handbook. Fourth, general and financial condition of each public body, and some issues raised in the National Assembly are presented either. This handbook covers both general feature of public bodies and specific managerial details of each public body at the same time.