[New Year's Address] San-eun Chairman Dong-geol Lee: "Completing Change and Innovation with the Wisdom of 'Paongguu'"

Sangun, 2020 New Year's Ceremony and Vision Declaration Ceremony Held
Fostering Next-Generation Leader Companies and New Industries to Lead the Korean Economy through Change and Innovation

[Asia Economy Reporter Kangwook Cho] Lee Dong-geol, Chairman of the Korea Development Bank (KDB), said on the 2nd, "Let us complete change and innovation with the wisdom of Pa-ong-gu-u (破甕救友), which breaks the old mold."

At the '2020 Opening Ceremony and Vision Declaration' held at the main auditorium of KDB headquarters that day, Chairman Lee said, "It is a time when new protagonists are needed to lead innovation and growth in the Korean economy and KDB," adding, "We must develop into a prosperous 'Korea Digital Bank (KDB)' together with the new protagonists of the Korean economy."

Pa-ong-gu-u means breaking (破) an earthenware jar (甕) to save (救) a friend (友). It originates from the story of Sima Guang of the Song Dynasty, who broke a small jar to save a friend, symbolizing sacrificing a small thing to save a greater one.

Chairman Lee also urged, "Focus policy finance capabilities on nurturing next-generation leading companies, and to this end, expand the scope and scale of support for innovative growth, promote the enlargement of funds and loan/investment sizes so that more unicorn companies can be born." He emphasized the need for bold investment and talent development to successfully complete digital transformation, such as introducing and applying Data Science in KDB's strength area of corporate finance.

Furthermore, Chairman Lee stressed, "For KDB to achieve true change and innovation, it must internalize a customer-centered mindset (including the entire national economy beyond just companies)." He mentioned that by continuously operating policy finance programs that share profits with companies using net income as a resource, such as the 'Special Operating Fund for Economic Vitality' launched in June last year, KDB should contribute to enhancing economic vitality.

On the same day, KDB held a vision declaration ceremony to boost employees' pride and share the vision company-wide, concretely presenting the future image KDB aims for. Chairman Lee emphasized KDB's leading role in overcoming the current economic situation with increasing uncertainty and called for the efforts of all employees to achieve the vision.

He set the mission of KDB as an advanced policy finance institution driving Korea's sustainable growth, to clearly define KDB's role in overcoming past identity confusion and pursuing public interest. He also declared the vision as "a financial platform connecting Korea to the future."

Along with this, Chairman Lee presented eight key tasks for achieving this mission and vision, including business aspects like 'corporate and industrial innovation' and internal innovation such as 'bank-wide digitalization.' He also announced the KDB Way, a code of conduct for employees centered on keywords like customer focus and challenge.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.