The state-run Korea Development Bank chairman and president Hong Ky-ttack spoke about the outlook for Korea’s reunification and the role of finance at an international meeting of development bank chiefs.
“One of the key agendas that lays ahead for Korea is a peaceful reunification and shared prosperity,” Hong said at the D20 Club Roundtable, which was held in Rome on July 4.
“This goal may be achieved through an organic combination of South Korea’s capital and technology with North Korea’s natural and human resources.”
Korea Development Bank chairman Hong Ky-ttack (left) and Germany’s Kreditanstalt fur Wiederaufbau CEO Ulrich Schroder pose together at the D20 Club Roundtable event held in Rome, Italy, Friday. (Korea Development Bank)
The D20 table, which kicked off last year in Moscow, is an unofficial cluster of the development bank chiefs of the G20 states. Its key purpose is to design a long-term financial and investment plan and to promote the role of state-run development financing bodies.
The participating organizations include the World Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Germany’s Kreditanstalt fur Wiederaufbau, Russia’s Vneshconombank and others.
Representing Korea, the KDB chief told the audience about President Park Geun-hye’s Dresden unification vision and urged the international development financing society to look closely into the country’s unification issue.
“Based on our ample experience in project finance, public-private partnership and social overhead capital, we shall perform our role of kick-starting North Korea’s economic development,” he said.
The role of finance in bracing for the reunification era is all the more significant for the KDB, which celebrated its 60th anniversary this year, according to officials.
To back up its drive, the bank also signed a memorandum of understanding with Germany’s KfW and agreed to hold a joint conference within the year.
“Before Germany’s unification, KfW focused on boosting the country’s domestic industry and nurturing small and medium-sized companies,” KDB officials explained.
“After unification, it played a leading role in providing financial support to the East Germany region.”
During the meeting, chairman Hong also gave a diagnosis of the global economic trend.
“The recent keywords of the global economy are ‘turnaround’ and ‘uneven recovery,’ meaning that the economy will show an uptrend but only within a limited range and with a geographic imbalance,” he said.
By Bae Hyun-jung (tellme@heraldcorp.com)
