In recognition of its 20th anniversary, KDI School has developed a series of seminars conducted by special speakers. This series will bring some of the renowned thinkers to speak about the subject titled “Korea’s Innovation and Leap” to the KDI School community members seeking for the future of Korea. A total of 9 seminars will be held once a month from March to November, to provide a great opportunity for knowledge sharing. The first two lectures explored the current economic affairs and the 4th industrial revolution.

“Getting Korea Ready for the 21st Economy: Turning Challenges into Opportunities”

The series was kicked off by Dr. Joon-Kyung KIM, the President of KDI School, who shared his knowledge on the Korean economy. On March 22, Dr. KIM started the special lecture by highlighting the institution’s accomplishments and sharing the vision for the School.

He then addressed current status and structural problems of the South Korean economy through the lens of income inequality and the ageing society. Upon showing the analysis of how the sectors of capital, labor, and productivity contributed to growth, especially in recent years, he pointed out that productivity has fallen sharply due to delays in restructuring and inefficient regulations.

The second part of the lecture broadened the scope of analysis regarding Korea’s economy. As the convergence of IT and existing industries accelerates, the demand for the ability to handle simple and repetitive tasks will decrease rapidly and demand for the ability to solve complex problems and communicate with others is expected to increase rapidly. Therefore, the government should lead discussions on economic and social changes due to technological progress, while making efforts to reform the educational sector, implement mid-life education programs and strengthen social safety nets.

In the third part, the lecture braved the audience with some tough questions; how does the Korean economy innovate in order to respond positively to the emergence of new types of business structures, and how should the government deal with changes in labor demand, now that social competence becomes more important? Dr. KIM went on to stress about an important aspect that is being implemented at KDI School in order to better prepare the students for the changes of the future decades - a shift from teacher-led lecture classes to Project-Based Learning, as mutual understanding and trust are formed in the course of discussion and cooperation among students.

In the final part of the lecture, the speaker reconfirmed South Korea’s ability to improve and innovate by presenting a History of Korea Overcoming Challenges throughout the mid-60s, early 80s, and the 1997 financial crisis. Having overcome these challenges, South Korea remains to be a textbook example of economic reversal and resilience. Dr. KIM proudly addressed that KDI School will work towards preparing new generations of policymakers that will ensure South Korea’s prosperity and continued development.

"From Imagination to Innovation"

The second seminar was brought to the public by Mr. Jong-lok YOON, the president of National IT Industry Promotion Agency*, and the former second vice minister of the Ministry of Science, ICT and Planning, on April 12. “Software education will be mandatory for all primary and high school students from 2018,” said Mr. YOON, to identify soft power as a key success factor in coping with the 4th industrial revolution.

According to him, software enables imagination into great innovation, and to allow for imagination to be challenged and innovative, ‘software-oriented thinking’ needs to be complimented with enriched imagination, creativity, continuous innovation, learning from failure, and flexible and logical thinking.

Mr. YOON emphasized that as opposed to the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd revolutions, the 4th industrial revolution will not require human resource as input but rather good imagination. “Korea has good imagination and the 4^th industrial revolution will need meaningful solutions… As far as digital soil is concerned, we now have to find good seeds. These are very important to our economy,” said Mr. YOON who added that “someone once told me that to remember is going back to the past that you have experienced, but to imagine is thinking about the future that you have never experienced.” That someone was Israel’s former President and Prime Minister, the late Shimon Peres.

By Valentin CROITORU [2017 MDP, Moldova)] and Rosa DALITUICAMA [2017 MDP, Fiji]