Lee Calls for Global Economic Partnership
By Na Jeong-ju
Staff Reporter
President Lee Myung-bak said Wednesday it was time for the world to look at the big picture for sustainable economic growth based on the lessons it has learned from the global financial crisis.
Climate change will become a key economic factor in the post-crisis era, so countries should take action now to survive the paradigm shift, he said.
"The world needs to understand how the global economic landscape will change after the crisis, and should take action now to brace for it," Lee said in a keynote address at the Global Korea 2010 forum at the Shilla Hotel in Seoul.
"As host of the G-20 Summit this year, Korea will help set the future course for the global economy based on close policy coordination with developing and underprivileged nations. I feel a great responsibility."
Lee presented three policy priorities countries must tackle at the moment ― boosting private spending and investment through creating jobs, strengthening global partnership programs for balanced growth and gearing up green growth strategies.
Lee said the worst economic crisis in decades partly resulted from a disparity between finance and the real economy. He made it clear that Korea will put financial reform on the G-20 agenda, saying, "The international community should redefine the role of finance for economic prosperity."
Introducing Korea's programs to share its growth experience with underdeveloped countries, Lee said sustainable development would only be possible for them after they are allowed to participate in global discussions on issues such as green growth and climate change.
"There is a saying that what makes countries rich or poor are not physical conditions like land and resources, but the choice of policies," Lee said. "We should be ready to take paths nobody else has tried if they fit the national interest and global needs.
"We will actively participate in global efforts to fight climate change and play a bridging role between advanced and emerging countries in preparing for the new trend."
The one-day forum, titled the Global Partnership in a Reshaping World, was organized by the Presidential Council on Future and Vision, to mark the second anniversary of Lee's inauguration, which falls today.
Dozens of senior South Korean officials and renowned scholars from around the world participated to discuss the country's future role in the international community.
Participants included former Swedish Prime Minister Hans Goran Persson; John L. Thornton, chairman of the board of the Brookings Institution; Kenneth Rogoff, professor of economics at Harvard University; Eckhard Deutscher, chairman of the OECD Development Assistance Committee; Sakong Il, chairman of South Korea's Presidential Committee for the G-20 Summit; and Vice Finance Minister Hur Kyung-wook.
They held three different sessions to discuss reshaping the world order after the global crisis, the means to promote international development cooperation and measures to reinforce environmental cooperation on climate change.