Diagnosing Economic Impact of COVID-19 and Exploring Solutions

On the 21st, when the number of new confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19) is decreasing, medical staff are checking the waiting room at the screening clinic of the National Medical Center in Jung-gu, Seoul. The Central Disease Control Headquarters of the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency announced that as of midnight on the day, the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases increased by 9 compared to midnight the previous day. Photo by Moon Honam munonam@

[Asia Economy Reporter Junho Hwang] The Ministry of Science and ICT and the Korea Institute of S&T Evaluation and Planning (KISTEP) will hold an online forum titled "The Future Changed by COVID-19: Crisis and Challenge" at 3 p.m. on the 23rd to turn the social and economic changes in the post-COVID-19 era into new growth opportunities. This event will be broadcast live on YouTube in an audience-free online forum format.

Joo Won, Director of the Hyundai Research Institute, who will deliver the keynote speech, will diagnose the impact on the Korean economy amid the increasing possibility of an economic crisis comparable to the Great Depression due to COVID-19. He will then suggest ways for the government and private economic actors to wisely overcome the crisis through economic and social changes.

Naeyoung Kang, Senior Researcher at the Korea International Trade Association's International Trade and Commerce Research Institute, will analyze the impact of changes in the global value chain (GVC) paradigm caused by COVID-19 on the Korean economy. Seonghoon Oh, Head of Client Industry at Deloitte Anjin LLC, will identify the characteristics of the complex crisis caused by COVID-19 and introduce corporate crisis response tasks and ways to systematically manage these tasks. Hyun Lim, Director of the Technology Forecasting Center at KISTEP, will present scenarios by sector on future society prospects and promising technologies in the post-COVID-19 era.

The expert panel discussion will include So-Young Kim, Director of the KAIST Korea 4th Industrial Revolution Policy Center, Cheolhong Kim, Head of Global Open Innovation at LG Display, and Seongbae Ahn, Director at the Korea Institute for International Economic Policy.

Sungsoo Kim, Head of the Science and Technology Innovation Headquarters, stated, "The speed at which science and technology are applied to industry is accelerating due to COVID-19, and new forms of innovation are expected to be triggered. It is very important to respond proactively to this," adding, "We will gather opinions from all sectors to present a new science and technology vision for the post-COVID-19 era."

Meanwhile, the government plans to hold a total of three joint urgent issue response online forums with the science and technology community every Thursday starting from the 23rd to turn the COVID-19 crisis into new opportunities.

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