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| President Park Geun-hye addresses the 2014 annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, Wednesday, as WEF Executive Chairman Klaus Schwab listens on. / Yonhap |
By Joint Press Corps and Kim Tae-gyu
DAVOS, Switzerland ― President Park Geun-hye suggested Wednesday that the world adopt the "Davos Consensus," which will replace the strongly market-oriented approach called the "Washington Consensus."
In a keynote speech at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in the Swiss resort city, Park said that a "creative economy" based on high-tech convergence would be a key constituent of the Davos Consensus.
"Since the global economic crisis, the Washington Consensus has not been regarded as sacred as it once was. The world beckons for something more, something that better meets the calling of our time. But a new consensus has yet to emerge," Park told the 44th annual conference.
"Maybe this WEF could lead to what we can call the Davos Consensus: the belief in entrepreneurship as the driving force of sustainable, inclusive growth. Indeed, a gathering of global leaders such as this should aim to usher in a new era."
The Washington Consensus, first minted by U.K. economist John Williams in 1989, refers to standard reform packages by Washington-based institutes prescribed to deal with economic crises.
They are composed of economic opening in terms of trade and investment as well as the expansion of market forces in the domestic economy with the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, both located in Washington, leading the way.
After the global economy faced a financial tailspin in the late 2000s, however, the belief on such fundamental market-oriented philosophy started to fade without finding a new theory to substitute it.
Park said entrepreneurship, a vital factor for the Davos Consensus, will reshape the world in the form of a creative economy, an attempt to find fresh growth engines through high-tech convergence.
"We must make growth sustainable. We must make growth inclusive. But piecemeal fixes will not do. Macroeconomic policies for labor policies under existing paradigms alone will not do. What we need is nothing short of a paradigm shift," she said.
"What we need and need urgently is an engine that takes us beyond these constraints; one that transforms the existing order and helps reshape the world. Korea is seeking that engine in the creative economy."
Park said that the advent of a new era is imminent when any nation's wealth will be decided not by material or digital assets but by creativeness and imagination.
"Since the industrial revolution, the wealth and happiness of nations and individuals had been determined by a material divide. Recently, this has given way to a digital divide. The future will be defined by a creative divide," she said.
"We in Korea believe that the only way to solving our problems is to creatively innovate our way out. Hence, our pursuit of a creative economy is the vision of a new paradigm for driving our economy forward."
Park also stressed the significance of deregulation to help the economy overcome hurdles.
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