Essay awardees propose fresh ideas for 4th Industrial Revolution
Korea Times President-Publisher Lee Chang-sup, third from left, and Woori Bank Executive Vice President Kwon Kwang-seok, fourth from left, pose with winners of the 13 English Economic Essay Contest at the Lotte Hotel in Seoul, Monday. From left are Kim Dae-young, Hah Seung-hyun, Lee, Kwon, Bae Ju-kyung who represented Daphne Yang, Kim Sung-hyo and Kim Yun-ho. / Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul
Foreigners highlight opportunities of PyeongChang Olympics
By Yoon Sung-won
College writers of award-winning English economic essays suggested fresh ideas in their writing about Korea’s preparation for the Fourth Industrial Revolution and for the economic success of the upcoming 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympic Games.
On Monday, The Korea Times held an awards event for the 13th English Economic Essay Contest, sponsored by Woori Bank.
Six winners of the contest were invited to the ceremony at the Lotte Hotel in Seoul, alongside Korea Times President-Publisher Lee Chang-sup and Woori Bank Executive Vice President Kwon Kwang-seok.
In this year’s contest, Korean participants were asked to write about how Korea should prepare for the Fourth Industrial Revolution while foreign collegians were given the subject, “Suggestions for making the PyeongChang Winter Olympics an economic success.”
In their essays, Korean awardees called on the government and society to take bolder moves to renovate the education system and to realize digital innovations both in the public and private sectors.
Foreign awardees expect that Korea can make the PyeongChang Olympics an economic success by boosting public interest through substantial marketing and skillful diplomatic efforts.
“Besides Korean participants, many collegians from 18 countries such as the United States, Ghana, the Philippines, Bhutan and the Netherlands entered this year’s competition, which is the only college English economic essay contest here,” Lee said.
“English fluency will remain very important for collegians during the Fourth Industrial Revolution because 80 percent of all information will be made in this language. It will be already too late to get it translated.”
The Woori Bank executive vice president said, “The awardees have shown excellence not just in English writing skills but also in their understanding of Korea’s urgent agenda.”
“As a representative of a financial institution which has aggressively expanded its global presence in recent years, I believe the awardees not only deserve compliments for their work in the contest but are also expected to become capable human resources in the future,” he added.
Among the six winners, Huh Seung-hyun, a business administration major at Yonsei University in Seoul, and Daphne Yang, a student at Pomona College in California, won the Grand Prizes for domestic and foreign entries, respectively.
Chonnam National University business administration major Kim Yun-ho claimed the Runner-up Award while the three Commendation Awards went to Kim Sung-hyo, a business administration major at Seoul National University; Kim Dae-young, a political science major at Korea University; and Grace Nsan, a student at Ningbo University in China.
Yang and Nsan did not make it to Seoul. Yang’s acquaintance Bae Ju-kyung accepted the prize on her behalf.
Huh, 20, said, “Regarding the Fourth Industrial Revolution, books were all about systematic problems with most of them only superficially discussing the matter. I wanted to focus specifically on education as one of the key aspects of preparation for the future.”
Yang, who sent a written message to the ceremony, said: “This contest gave international students the chance to understand a real-world application of Korea’s economic issues and allowed them to present their views on both the Korean economy and culture. I would like to sincerely thank The Korea Times and Woori Bank for providing me with the opportunity to better understand Korea.”
The Grand Prize and Commendation Award winners were given round-trip tickets for international and domestic routes, respectively. The runner-up received a laptop.