juyeol lee : inaugural address inaugural address by mr juyeol lee, governor of the bank of korea, seoul, 2 april 2018. * * * ( the following is an unofficial english translation of the inaugural address of juyeol lee, the governor of the bank of korea. ) my dear fellow bank of korea staff! today i begin my second term as bank of korea governor. this is not only a great honor for me personally, but from the standpoint of our organization as well i think it has a very deep meaning in serving to honor the bank of korea ’ s neutrality and the autonomy of its monetary policy. at first i considered beginning my new term without holding any event at all, but for the purpose of reflecting together with you all on this meaning, and newly resolving ourselves for the work ahead of us, we are having this inaugural ceremony, even if it is only a simple one. first, let me express my heartfelt appreciation to our monetary policy board members, who have given their all in our establishment and operation of monetary policy even under the harsh conditions that we have faced over the past four years, and to our executives and staff, who have faithfully carried out the duties assigned to them under these conditions as well. my fellow bank of korea staff! recently our domestic economy, as well as economies overseas, have been growing solidly, and it is forecast that these trends will persist going forward as well. but i think that the uncertainties surrounding our economy now are greater than at any other time before. already this year financial markets worldwide have been shaken to considerable extents, in line with the monetary policy normalizations in major countries and the movements toward strengthened trade protectionism. in korea structural problems have also built up, owing to our low birthrate and population aging, income imbalances, dual labor market structure and accumulated household debt. all of these are factors that can undermine the stability of our real economy and financial system. in severe conditions like these, we will need to equip ourselves with strong senses of responsibility and mission, and ponder deeply the directions appropriate to our future policy operations. and as i begin my second term here today, i would like to talk from now on about the tasks that i plan to focus on pushing ahead with. first, while working to sustain the momentum of the economic recovery, we will also have to operate our monetary policy so as to ensure that financial system stability can be maintained. as we continue our monetary policy accommodation

, the pressures of global regulations and goal attainment related to environmental issues will only intensify. in line with this, the republic of korea has made a commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 40 % from 2018 levels by 2030, and to increase official development assistance ( oda ) for green projects. while our economy may face challenges during this transition, when we fulfill our responsibilities as members of the international community, we will then be able to actively demand that advanced countries, which have historically emitted significant amounts of greenhouse gases during their development process, fulfill their technological and financial support responsibilities to developing countries. third, tackling climate change presents both risks and opportunities. the covid19 pandemic has caused a global health crisis, but it has also presented unprecedented growth opportunities for bio - tech companies such as biontech and moderna, who have successfully developed vaccines. the climate change crisis will also present opportunities for companies that are prepared. global climate venture companies like opower in the u. s., a provider of big data for energy conservation, or like climateworks in switzerland, which converts carbon dioxide into solid carbon for sale, or like rubicon, also in the u. s., which creates resource circulation platforms, are all experiencing rapid growth. globally, climate tech investment funds have grown threefold in two years, reaching us $ 45 billion in 2021. innovative technologies in the fields of environment, energy, agriculture, and geographic observation are being commercialized at an astonishing pace. this will provide challenging business opportunities for the young itsavvy generation in korea. the bank of korea is also making multifaceted efforts in response to climate change. we are continuously expanding research and conducting stress tests to evaluate the 2 / 4 bis - central bankers'speeches impact of climate change on financial institutions. this includes the development of stress test models. 5 additionally, we are actively expanding our efforts in foreign exchange reserve management by incorporating esg investments, along with other initiatives, to address climate change. moving forward, we intend to explore market creating measures to promote green finance and policy tools to alleviate the transition burden on small and medium - sized enterprises ( smes ) in collaboration with financial authorities. supporting smes in green finance is an important policy task because if smes fail to transition smoothly to environmentally friendly practices, large corporations connected through export supply chains will also find it difficult to evade global environmental regulations. however, these smes face difficulties in benefiting from green finance due to their low credit