out our core responsibilities of achieving price and financial stability. i, for my part, will spare no effort in supporting your great strides forward. to motivate individual staff and enhance organizational performance, i fully understand that raising employee satisfaction in terms of personnel / organizational management and compensation is no less important than boosting one ’ s sense of duty and fulfillment. due to a number of budgetary, systemic and other constraints, we probably cannot resolve all the issues in one go, but let ’ s explore ways to approach this one step at a time to improve working conditions and boost employee morale. as you may know, i was severely ill some time back due to covid - 19. i view the bank of korea governorship as an invaluable opportunity to make my new lease on life even more meaningful. while my appointment at this critical juncture bestows on me a sense of heavy responsibility, i feel grateful as well for having this chance to serve, working for the development of both our nation and the bank of korea. as victor hugo wrote, “ the future has several names. for the weak, it is impossible ; for 5 / 6 the faint - hearted, it is unknown ; but for the valiant, it is ideal. ” let us work together as one team to ensure that when we look back one day, we can take pride in how we at the bank of korea guided the korean economy in the right direction from its turning point. thank you. 21 april 2022 governor rhee, chang yong 6 / 6

due to competition to secure new technologies and fragmentation into geopolitical and economic blocs, it seems evident during this process that the international landscape will be made ever more complex by a web of interconnected political, economic and security issues. we live in a period where it is difficult to predict whether our economy, which is heavily dependent on the external sector, can take the next leap forward by overcoming challenges in its transition to the new, post - pandemic normal, or whether it will spiral into secular stagnation amid the ongoing trends of an aging population and lower productivity. in order to make the right choice for our economy at such crossroads, it is time to boldly change our economic policy framework. we can no longer count on economic growth based on the government drawing up industrial policies which are then executed by everyone working countless hours, as we did in the past. instead, what we need now is to seek a more qualitative growth driven by the creativity of the private sector. exports and supply chains that have been confined to a small number of sectors and countries also need to be diversified. there will be pain along the way, but we must endure it and press forward with our efforts to reallocate resources through structural reforms. we should not make the mistake of dwelling on past glories and hesitating to change our racehorse when its performance is not what it used to be. we must also take note of the problems of worsening income inequality and polarization that will inevitably arise during economic restructuring. the whole world, not just korea, is currently experiencing an increase in income inequality as it transitions to knowledgeintensive industries with the advancement in digital technology. on top of this, here in korea, population aging is bringing about increases in youth unemployment, elderly poverty and 2 / 6 regional imbalances. as severe polarization will deepen social conflict, thereby undermining our growth potential, this will have to be addressed as well. another challenge we face is the rapid growth in household and government debt. as the demand for social spending increases due to population aging, fiscal space to support economic growth will shrink. from experience, we know that a continuous buildup of debt can incur huge social costs should the bubble end up bursting. for us at the bank of korea in our pursuit of macroeconomic stability, we cannot but take a keen interest in engineering a soft landing of these debt - laden sectors. fellow members of the bank of korea, you might be wondering