juyeol lee : prospects and challenges for sustained growth in asia welcoming remarks by mr juyeol lee, governor of the bank of korea, at the 2017 mosf - bokimf - piif international conference “ prospects and challenges for sustained growth in asia ”, seoul, september 7, 2017 * * * ladies and gentlemen, honored guests! i am delighted to bid you all a sincere welcome to this conference, hosted jointly by the ministry of strategy and finance, the imf, the peterson institute for international economics and the bank of korea. let me first express my special gratitude to managing director christine lagarde, who is here to represent the imf directly despite her tight schedule. i wish to thank as well president adam posen of the peterson institute for international economics, and director changyong rhee of the asia and pacific department of the imf, who have worked so hard to arrange the joint hosting of this conference starting from the initial planning stage. appreciation also goes to all of our moderators, presenters and discussants, including first vice minister hyoung - kwon go, who delivered the welcome address just before, and imf economic counsellor maurice obstfeld, who will deliver the dinner speech tonight. as we are all well aware, the asian economy has sustained a rapid rate of growth over the past 50 to 60 years, and in doing so served as a locomotive driving growth in the world economy overall. we can look at this as a result of success in the export - led growth strategy, centering around the manufacturing industry and based on surplus labor as well as late - comers ’ advantages. during this time, the economic growth pattern in asia has been that when the economies in the countries leading growth have entered their mature stages, the later - developing countries have moved into their places and asia as a whole has sustained its high growth. japan came first, to be followed in turn by the so - called four dragons, and then china. now it is india and the asean countries that are emerging as new runners. in light of this, we expect going forward that the asian economy will sustain its role as the engine of world economic growth for some time, while showing dynamism centering around later - developing countries. but there are also not a few claims that this growth strategy has reached its limits. as asian economies have gradually entered their mature stages, it has become difficult for them to sustain extensive growth strategies based on increasing their production factor inputs.

countermeasures. in this process, i will work to ensure that we can achieve more effective financial cooperation with major central banks and international financial organizations. we also need to pool our wisdom for the stable management of household debt. dear members of the bok family! the last two years have afforded me a good opportunity to look at the bank of korea from a more objective perspective. the outside evaluations of the bank differ from what we ourselves believe we are, and i think contain many points that we can refer to in conducting our tasks. here today, i would like to request the following : we need to look back once again, and consider the appropriateness of our ways of thinking and handling the work that we have taken as natural until now. all organizations tend to have their own thoughts and patterns of behavior distinct from those of other organizations. from the outsider ’ s view, however, this can be seen as a kind of institutional self - centeredness that tries to disregard changes in the environment. as i mentioned earlier, people ’ s expectations for the central bank are at this time higher than ever before. we should bear in mind that, if we do not think outside the box, it can be difficult for us to play the role and carry out the mission befitting the needs of our time. particularly, since the bank of korea is a national policy organization, we should always look squarely at the problems which the korean economy faces and maintain a positive attitude while seeking the appropriate policy options. only then will the bank of korea be able to be recognized as working together with the people, and contributing to the development of the national economy. to this end, i hope that all of you will devote yourselves to selfimprovement, and to being top - class specialists in your areas of work. i will devote myself to creating an environment in which all employees can trust and communicate candidly with one another. we should never forget that a workplace culture where seniors, juniors and coworkers trust, respect and care about one another is a very valuable asset which our predecessors have cultivated for a long time. dear fellow members of the bank of korea! i would like to briefly tell you my thoughts related to this organization and to its human resource management. i will completely reexamine the efficiency of our current management administration system and operating procedures. i will work to further enhance the positive aspects of the various reforms taken in the internal management area in the past years. if, however,