Seung calls for 'bold, forward-looking' deals to embrace the Fourth Industrial Revolution

Chairman Seung Myung-ho of The Korea Times and Hankook Ilbo delivers an opening speech for the 6th Korea Forum at the Hotel Shilla in Seoul, Thursday. Korea Times photo by Oh Dae-geun

By Park Si-soo

Chairman Seung Myung-ho of The Korea Times and Hankook Ilbo called Thursday for bipartisan efforts to tackle regulatory and sociopolitical hurdles facing Korea to enable the country to “lead” in the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

“The world economy stands on the cusp of an epoch-making change called the Fourth Industrial Revolution. We have no time to stay idle, sticking with conventional growth recipes such as exports, trade and technology that have buttressed the Korean economy.”

Seung made the remarks in an opening speech for the 6th Korea Forum, the “Third year of the Moon Jae-in administration and three hurdles lying ahead,” held at the Hotel Shilla in Seoul.

Expressing a sense of urgency, he said: “We can no longer put off labor reform and the restructuring of industries. And this will require bold concessions and painstaking but forward-looking compromises among the parties involved.”

Leaders of the ruling and opposition parties, ranking bureaucrats and noted local and international scholars attended the forum, co-hosted by The Korea Times and its sister paper the Hankook Ilbo.

Seung said labor reform, industrial restructuring and a “soft landing” for innovative industries were the three most critical issues that “must be discussed openly to find the best solution.”

“There is a saying, 'success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome while trying to succeed,'” Seung said, quoting American educator Booker T. Washington.

“If we successfully pinpoint the problems within the Korean economy and find clues for a solution, this will guide us to a position leading the Fourth Industrial Revolution.”