Asia Future Forum to Take Place from November 15 to 16th

Politicians, Experts and Scholars – Chairperson Seung-jun Kwak - to Participate

A three-layer crisis is prowling about East Asia.

The first layer is the energy crisis, which is also an environmental threat. Horrors of natural disasters and radiation leak from nuclear power plants have swooped down on East Asia. Securing the energy supply without nuclear power went into a heated dispute.

The second one is the crisis of development. Global financial crises have driven American and European economies to a recession. Highly dependent on exports, East Asian economies also have been put on emergency alert. Korea in particular has a strong concern over its aging population, which may harm the potential for growth. 

The last layer is the distribution crisis. After the late 1990s, Korea faced a rapid economic polarization. Recent changes in the trade order such as US-Korea FTA may widen the gap. Economic polarization has become a big problem for China as well. As Chinese economy rapidly grew in the past decades, the gap between the urban and rural areas and that between exports and domestic demand have been widening. Even Japan whose economy used to feature fair income distribution turned into a polarized society. 

Standing at the cross-point of the three crises, how can the East Asian corporations overcome them? At Asia Future Forum 2011, Hankyoreh Economic Research Institute presents 8 questions the managers of East Asian corporations must bear in mind.

Scholars, entrepreneurs and journalists with the most comprehensive understanding of Korea, Japan and China come together at Asia Future Forum 2011 to discuss and find answers to the questions on the table. The keywords are Responsibility and Symbiosis. In addition, East Asia 30, a list of the best CSR perfor-mers among East Asian corporations, will be announced. HERI will explain the CSR evaluation model in Asian context and reveal the distinctive features of the listed corporations. 

The Forum takes place from November 15th to 16th at the Lotte Hotel in So-gong-dong, Seoul. On the panel are scholars – Youngbok Shin, professor at Sungkonghoe University; politicians – Jaewan Park, the Minister at the Ministry of Strategy and Finance, Seung-jun Kwak, the chairperson at the Presidential Committee for Future&Vision and Masatoshi Muto, the Japanese Ambassador to Korea; and financiers – Kyungshik Sohn, the chairperson at the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Jae-won Choi, the vice president at SK, Inc. They will attend lectures and discuss subject issues.