Experts speak of economic challenges at annual FKCCI forum

About 70 attendees were present at the Economic Forecast 2022 event held at the Mondrian hotel, central Seoul, including FKCCI Chairman David-Pierre Jalicon, French Ambassador to Korea Philippe Lefort and Invest Seoul Director Gu Bon-hi.

Adeline-Lise Khov, economic counselor and head of the economic department at the French Embassy in Korea, speaks during the annual Economic Forecast 2022 forum on Thursday, at the Mondrian hotel, central Seoul. [FKCCI]

The French-Korean Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FKCCI) held a yearly business forum on global and domestic economic outlook on Thursday, in partnership with Invest Seoul.

About 70 attendees were present at the Economic Forecast 2022 event held at the Mondrian hotel, central Seoul, including FKCCI Chairman David-Pierre Jalicon, French Ambassador to Korea Philippe Lefort and Invest Seoul Director Gu Bon-hi.

“The Korean economy is facing several challenges both externally and internally,” said Jalicon during opening remarks, citing geopolitical threats, the tension in the labor market and the growing gap between large and small companies.

However, Jalicon emphasized the Korean economy’s resilience when facing a crisis, saying that “after the Covid-19 crisis, Korea is now ranked as the tenth largest world economy.”

The major topic during the event was the challenges that the Korean economy is currently facing.

“If somebody asks me [to describe] the recent dynamics in global economics with a single word, I’ll define [it] as the separation era,” said Kim Hyoung-tae, chief economist at major Korean law firm Kim & Chang, who was one of the keynote speakers at the event.

Kim explained that in the separation era where geopolitical conflicts directly affect the industries worldwide and disrupt the global value chain, economic disparities are likely to worsen, and national securities and business would become inseparable like in the case of the U.S.-China trade war.

Kim explained that the current economic situation may hurt the domestic industry, especially the semiconductor manufacturing business, “considering that Korea’s economy is heavily reliant on the overseas market.” However, he mentioned that fast-growing local industries such as battery raw material and biopharmaceutical businesses may invigorate the market, along with the nuclear energy and shipbuilding businesses.

The French Embassy’s economic counselor Adeline-Lise Khov, who was also a keynote speaker at the event, pointed that high real estate prices, low productivity, rising household debt and declining population are the major threats to the Korean economy.

BY SHIN HA-NEE [shin.hanee@joongang.co.kr]